The doorway from Athens. Greece’s largest PDO wine zone, ancient sites within an hour of Corinth, the canal that cuts the Peloponnese off from the mainland.
Corinthia is the northeastern shoulder of the Peloponnese — the prefecture you cross to enter the rest of it. The Corinth Canal cuts the Peloponnese from the mainland; behind the canal, the land rises inland to the high basin of Nemea, the largest PDO wine zone in Greece, and the ancient sites that line the old road south.
The traveller’s Corinthia has two centres. The first is the Nemea valley: more than forty wineries in a high basin between 260 and 800 metres, growing Agiorgitiko — the supple, plummy red nicknamed “the blood of Hercules”. The second is the line of ancient sites: Acrocorinth’s great fortress, the agora of Ancient Corinth, the temple and stadium of Nemea, the Heraion of Perachora on its windswept cape. Nemea town is forty minutes from Ancient Corinth by car, and most considered visits do a slow week of both.
Hover the map or the list — they're linked. Numbered roughly the way you'd drive them.
Lake Doxa, the mountain lake of Feneos at 900 metres under Mount Helmos — the monastery of Saint George, fir-forested walks and the stone village of Goura.
A working agricultural village above an open archaeological site — a Hellenistic theatre, a long stoa, a Roman bath, and absolutely no tour buses. The most underrated site in the Peloponnese.
A 19th-century thermal spa town on the Gulf of Corinth with a long seafront promenade, working hot springs, the Geraneia hills behind, and the easiest base for a winery weekend from Athens.
The headland west of Loutraki, with a sanctuary of Hera at its tip, in use from the 8th century BC — a small Doric temple, a sacred pool, a lighthouse, and a sunset over the Corinthian Gulf that is a small religious experience.
The sanctuary of Zeus and the original Nemean Games stadium — a stone start-line still in place, the runners’ tunnel, and a Temple of Zeus whose fallen columns have been raised again, drum by drum.
The 6.3-km cut through the limestone isthmus that Nero began and a Greek company finished in 1893 — a thin slot of vivid blue water 80 metres below the road bridge. Stop, walk, drive on.
The 575-metre rock above Ancient Corinth, fortified from antiquity to the Ottomans — the greatest fortress in southern Greece, with a view that takes in three seas.
The agora of one of the great Greek and Roman cities — the Temple of Apollo, the Pirene fountain, the bema where Saint Paul stood trial. Walked in two hours; the museum is excellent.
Greece’s largest red-wine appellation — 40 wineries in a high basin between 260 and 800 metres, growing Agiorgitiko. Most open for tasting; the best have restaurants and a few rooms.
Trips shaped by the doorway from Athens — wine, sites, and the Gulf of Corinth coast.
Agiorgitiko at 650 m in Nemea, Mycenae's spice tablets, Malvasia at Velies, farewell at Lela's.
2 Nemea cellars, Moschofilero 650 m up, farm cheese outdoors, Ancient Olympia early, Achaia Clauss cellars.
Linear B at Nestor's palace, Navarino Bay by kayak, Taygetos on foot, sunset at the Menelaion.
Corinth Canal on the drive in, Epidaurus' 55 rows, Mycenae by morning, a kayak or e-bike day.
The vines just budding in the Nemea valley. Sites quiet, weather variable but kind. Acrocorinth at its greenest.
The vines fully out; long evenings on winery terraces; sea swimmable at Loutraki by mid-June. Ancient Corinth in its best afternoon light.
Hot and dry in the valley — the grapes ripening for a September harvest. Coast and Loutraki busy; sites best at opening time or after 5pm (Acrocorinth shuts at 15:30).
The peak season — the harvest in full swing from mid-September into October, the air full of fermenting fruit. Our favourite time in Corinthia.
The new vintage in tank; tastings by appointment, fewer crowds, the odd snowfall on the Geraneia. Loutraki is a winter spa weekend; Nemea is asleep but welcoming.
The Nemea PDO is the largest PDO wine zone in Greece — more than forty estates in a high basin between 260 and 800 metres, almost all growing the indigenous Agiorgitiko grape. Plummy, supple, lower in tannin than its Mediterranean peers, it is nicknamed “the blood of Hercules”, after the myth that placed the slaying of the Nemean lion in this valley. Modern Nemea is divided into three altitude bands — valley floor, mid-slope, high vineyards — each producing a different shoulder of the same grape. The best estates open for unhurried tasting; Semeli’s bistro at Koutsi is worth the drive on its own.
Corinthia holds an unusual density of ancient places. Acrocorinth, on its 575-metre rock, was fortified from antiquity to the Ottomans — a vast walled summit with three gates, an upper acropolis, and a view that runs from the Saronic to the Corinthian Gulf. Below it, Ancient Corinth was one of the great cities of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds: the agora, the Temple of Apollo, the bema where Saint Paul addressed the Corinthians. Thirty minutes south-west, the sanctuary at Nemea has a Doric Temple of Zeus whose fallen columns have been raised again, drum by drum, and the 4th-century BC stadium, with its vaulted runners’ tunnel and stone start-line still in place.
Nero began it; a French company resumed the work in 1882 and a Greek company finished it in 1893; the Corinth Canal is the 6.3-kilometre cut through the isthmus that engineered the Peloponnese into an island. From the road bridge above the canal, you look nearly 80 metres straight down at a thin slot of vivid blue water with a small boat in it. It is the moment you cross from the rest of Greece into the south. Most travellers stop, walk to the rail, look down for a quarter of an hour, and drive on — which is the right thing to do. For the few who want it, Zulu Bungy jumps from the bridge, daily in July and August and on fewer days in spring and autumn.
Corinthian cooking is the cooking of a wine country — long lunches, slow lamb, roasted vegetables, hard mountain cheese, citrus from the coastal plain. The food is a frame for the wine; in Nemea, the wine is the conversation.
The signature grape of Nemea — plummy, supple, medium-tannin, ageing well into a darker, leathered shoulder. The Greek answer to a serious modern Sangiovese; on most Peloponnesian wine lists.
A village raisin cake — dense, dark, packed with sultanas and walnuts. Eaten in slices with coffee.
The small dark currant that took its name from Corinth — Greece’s “black gold” in the late 19th century, three-quarters of its exports — still grown in the northern and western Peloponnese. Sweet and intense.
Lamb shoulder slow-roasted in paper or clay with mountain herbs, garlic, lemon and potatoes — a Sunday-lunch classic.
Whole fruit preserved in heavy syrup — citrus, sour cherries, walnut, fig. Served on a tiny plate with a glass of cold water in village houses; the monks at Feneos make one from roses.
Distilled after the harvest from the grape marc, the residue of the wine press. Drunk neat after long lunches; expect to be offered some.
A winery suite in Nemea, a promenade hotel in Loutraki, a stone guesthouse in the mountains — or Nafplio, for longer stays.
Semeli Estate at Koutsi rents suites on the estate — vines outside the window, tasting on the doorstep. In Nemea town, Kera Neme is a small modern hotel with its own wine cellar.
Promenade hotels in Loutraki, on the Gulf of Corinth — from the Wyndham Loutraki Poseidon resort to small pensions, with the Loutraki Thermal Spa a few minutes away. Easy weekending from Athens. The discreet Greek weekend.
Stone-built guesthouses in the three Trikala villages on Mount Ziria — Vathyskia and Diochri among them, some with fireplaces — and, west of the mountain, in Archaia Feneos, Goura and Feneos village, five to fifteen minutes from Lake Doxa. Mountain walks from the door.
For a week or more, Nafplio is the more pleasant base — forty-five minutes from Nemea, an hour from Ancient Corinth. Drive up for tastings and sites; sleep on the harbour.
Most travellers fly into Athens (ATH) and drive over the Corinth Canal — about 1h 30 from the airport to Loutraki or Ancient Corinth, 1h 45 to Nemea. Corinthia is the closest Peloponnesian prefecture to Athens — a long weekend works comfortably from Athens without flights, and Loutraki is popular with Athenians.
A car is essential for the wineries and inland sites. The suburban railway runs from Athens to Corinth and Kiato, and KTEL buses run from Athens to Loutraki; Ancient Corinth has no station. Wineries are 5–25 minutes apart on slow valley roads; allow longer at harvest.
May–June and September–November. The September–October harvest is the headline experience, but a visit then must be booked early. Winter (Nov–Feb) is excellent for slow tastings and a quiet Acrocorinth.
Closed shoes for the rough stone steps of Acrocorinth. A driver, or a taxi-by-the-day arrangement, if you intend to do a serious tasting day in Nemea — spitting is one option, designated drivers another.
Most winery tastings are by appointment, all year; we book everything ahead. Loutraki is busy on summer weekends. Ancient Corinth and Acrocorinth do not need pre-booking; Acrocorinth has limited shade and closes at 15:30 all year — go early.
Tell us a little about the trip you want — pace, who's coming, how you'd like to spend your mornings. We'll build the days.
