Naoussa Wine Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Macedonia calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year.
The Naoussa Wine Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Macedonia calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Naoussa town centre in Naoussa, in the heart of one of Greece's most distinctive wine areas. It is an annual event with an established local audience and a consistent place in the regional calendar.
The Naoussa Wine Festival celebrates the region's flagship Xinomavro variety and PDO. Producers including Boutari, Kir-Yianni, Domaine Karydas, Thymiopoulos and Dalamara open their cellars across the weekend, with tastings, vertical comparisons of Xinomavro, food pairings, and traditional Macedonian music in the town centre. The festival coincides with the harvest season in the region. Harvest and grape festivals — fiestas de la vendimia, festas das vindimas, weinlesefeste — are some of the longest-running celebrations in their regions, with many running uninterrupted for a century or more. Programmes typically combine grape-stomping demonstrations, traditional music, parades of allegorical floats, food stalls offering regional specialities, and tastings of the area's wines. The events have strong local character and are often as much community celebrations as wine programmes, with town councils, parish committees and local producer associations sharing the organisational load. Many festivals incorporate religious elements — blessings of the harvest, processions to the parish church — that connect the wine calendar to the liturgical year. The event is organised by Naoussa Wine Producers Association, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Macedonia in northern Greece is the country's red-wine heartland and the home of Xinomavro, Greece's most structured indigenous red grape — sometimes called the 'Nebbiolo of Greece' for its tannic intensity and ageing potential. The four protected appellations are Naoussa (the historic Xinomavro reference), Amyndeo (cooler, higher-altitude, also producing rosé and sparkling), Goumenissa (Xinomavro blended with Negoska), and Slopes of Meliton/Côtes de Meliton in Halkidiki. The region also produces high-quality whites from Assyrtiko, Malagousia (resurrected from near-extinction by Domaine Gerovassiliou) and international varieties. Producers like Boutari, Kir-Yianni, Alpha Estate, Domaine Karydas, Thymiopoulos and Gerovassiliou set the regional quality reference.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for September 2026. Festival access is ticketed: Glass pass approx. €15. Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at https://naoussawines.com/. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Macedonia is reached via Thessaloniki airport (SKG), Greece's second-largest city, with Thessaloniki itself the natural base and Naoussa, Amyndeo and Goumenissa within 1-2 hours by car. Macedonian cuisine pairs the wines with the region's distinctive mezedes, soutzoukakia (spiced meatballs in tomato sauce), bougatsa, the area's strong cheese traditions (feta, kasseri, manouri), and the wider eastern Mediterranean food culture. Beyond wine, the UNESCO-listed monasteries of Mount Athos, the archaeological site of Vergina (the royal Macedonian tombs), and the Halkidiki beaches add to the regional travel offer.
