read more
Around 1864 Vasileios Mavrakis and Nikolaos Vyrlos founded the winery and distillery named “Agamemnon Distillery”, focusing mostly on the production of wine distillates. The company’s location at the time was “Hephaestus Square” in the center of Argos. Until early 2000s many underground handmade wine tanks (property of Mavrakis Distillery) were found in various building excavations. Just after 1864 the distillery evolved and also produced pure alcohol apart from wine and distillates.The distillery invested in new equipment and installed a steam boiler distillation machine. In that era’s newspapers our distillery was referred to as the first “Steam-Generated” distillery (relevant photo below). During those years the company started exporting spirits, distillates and brandy to various Soviet Union and Middle Eastern countries. We still preserve bottles of that period with Russian and Arabic labels.After World War I the Greek government imposed a monopoly in alcohol production and therefore our Distillery stopped that specific business venture.
Charilaos Mavrakis carried on the family tradition until his passing in 1935. His successor was his son Vasileios Mavrakis along with his mother Anastasia and during World Was II the distillery was under German Military subjugation.
After the end of World War II Vasileios Mavrakis started the business again, creating a large distribution network covering Argolida, Korinthia and Arkadia areas , with the help of his wife Evgenia. Under the management of Vasilis and Evgenia Mavrakis, the family business upgraded each product lineup substantially. Many different Ouzo varieties, brandies and liqueurs increased the company’s sales. We still have in our possession a sales invoice from that period to a client in Ancient Korinthos with shipping method specified as “train”.
In 1977 Vasilis Mavrakis retired. The management of the company now is in the hands of his wife Evgenia, who after running the company successfully for more than 10 years will hand it over, in 1987, to her 33yo son Haris. Evgenia Mavrakis participated in the management of the company until the age of 87. The management of the company now lies in the hands of Charilaos Mavrakis (Haris), who will go a long way in order to preserve the tradition and recipes of his predecessors. Those recipes are still “alive” inside bottles since 1864 and are in our possession which are exhibited in the “Museum” theme store of the company in the heart of Argos.
During years 1993-1994 the company started exporting products to Russia and expanded its distribution and sales network into other Greek areas. During 1997 Mavrakis company was one of the first in producing Private Label products, which got it in partnership with some of the largest supermarket store chains in Greece. Those partnerships are still active today.
Our product’s excellent quality and highest production standards have led to the broad popularity of the Mavrakis brand. Today, our company exports products to various European, American, Australian and Middle Eastern countries and those exports are more than the 68% of our annual production.
