The Peloponnese Larder

Pickup is in Athens in the morning, and Nemea is about 90 minutes west. A cellar there pours Agiorgitiko from three heights: Alikiza at 650 m, Monopati at 550 m and an older vintage from the plain. From August to October the Golden Black currant growers let you hang bunches on their drying wires. Lunch is among the vines, with Feneos beans or grass-pea fava. Nafplio is the base for two nights, and tonight’s welcome dinner is hosted. The table is booked for the evening, so there is time to check in first.

North of Nafplio the road climbs to Mycenae, where a licensed guide reads the citadel through its stores: tablets from the House of the Sphinxes list coriander, cumin, fennel and sesame. Lunch is red shrimp at Koilada, on the gulf. Back in Nafplio, Karonis has distilled since 1869, and the sour-cherry liqueur is the glass to ask for. The evening is free; tell us in the morning and we book a table. Mycenae’s paths are uneven limestone, so trainers beat sandals.

A glass of Troupis Ekato, pink Moschofilero left 100 days on its skins, is the reason to stop on the Mantinia plateau, about an hour’s drive from Nafplio. The walls of ancient Mantineia run through the same vineyards, so the tasting and the history share one field. Lunch is on the plateau, then the road climbs to Manna at Magouliana, a 1920s sanatorium at 1,200 m in fir forest and our base for two nights. Dinner is free. Pack a warm layer, since evenings at 1,200 m are cooler than on the coast.

Morning starts in Vytina at the Tsatsoulis dairy: sheep’s yoghurt set under its skin and a sharp feta, then egg pasta at Liaropoulos and Mainalo fir honey, a protected product that does not crystallise. Lunch is at Iosif taverna in Magouliana. In the afternoon the Open-Air Water Power Museum at Dimitsana shows the mills on the river and a grape-spirit still. Gerousia in Stemnitsa, a coffee house since 1870, pours the last glass. Dinner is free. The museum closes on Tuesdays, and our start days keep this visit off one.

Theodorakakos Estate, organic since 1996, sits on the Sparta plain, halfway along one of the trip’s two long road days: about three and a quarter hours from Magouliana to Monemvasia in two legs. The tasting covers Kydonitsa, named for the quince it smells of, and Mavroudi. Lunch is on the plain, and Mystras with a licensed guide can be added on request. Kinsterna is the base for two nights, and dinner is free. In September the estate is closed and Mystras takes its place.

Giorgos and Elli Tsimbidis pour six wines at Monemvasia Winery in Velies, each paired with produce from the farms around it, and finish on Malvasia, the grape behind the English word malmsey. Before that, the day opens on the rock at Monemvasia at first light. Lunch follows, and the afternoon is free for a swim off the rocks. Tonight’s dinner at Kinsterna is hosted. Pack swim kit in the day bag.

Summer is when octopus hangs drying on Gythio’s harbour, though never on a schedule. The fixed stop is Manolakos, making sesame and honey bars since 1902. In Areopoli, Milia’s bakery fries lalangia, ribbons of dough, in a wood oven; lunch is syglino, smoked pork kept in its own fat, scrambled with eggs and tomato at Alepi or Palaiopolis. The coast road north reaches Kardamyli for three nights, and dinner is free. The walk to the Tigani salt hollows is on request: an hour out from Mezapos with no shade, so carry a hat and water.

Today’s road is the longest, about three and a half hours in two legs, west across Messinia and back. At the Palace of Nestor a licensed guide shows the wine store, its clay sealings marked for wine, a pantry that held 2,853 drinking cups and tablets recording oil scented with rose and sage. Lunch is at Gialova, beside the lagoon that was once the fishpond called the divari, from the Latin vivarium. Dinner is free. Keep a water bottle in the vehicle for the long legs.

A licensed guide walks Ancient Messene with you, and Psaroulis winery at Vasilada is 15 minutes on. Kostas Psaroulis grows Fileri from vines planted in 1948, and ungrafted Assyrtiko on an old lake bed where shells still turn up in the soil. Lunch is at Kitries, with the fishermen who own the taverna. The farewell dinner is hosted at Lela’s in Kardamyli, opened in 1983 by the Leigh Fermors’ cook. The table is booked for the evening, so the afternoon is short.

Wednesday and Saturday mornings are market days in Kalamata, which is why the trip starts only on Monday or Thursday. The stalls carry Alagonia potatoes, Taygetos oregano and honey, sfela, the brined cheese sharper than feta, at Diakoumis, and smoked pork at Oikonomakos, butchers since 1874. An early lunch in the market quarter comes before the motorway to Athens. Leave room in your bag: honey, beans and wine pack easily, but check your country’s rules on syglino and sfela.