From Sous le Végétal to Philia Wines The Next Phase

Sous le Végétal completes an important cycle and, from now on, continues as Philia Wines.

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The same vineyards. The same place. The same growers. The same winery. An identity that now expresses, exclusively, the place and the people who create these wines.

Philia is not a new venture. This change is not a new beginning, nor a new commercial project. It is a consolidation of identity, a clearer alignment between the wines, their origin, and the people who make them. Above all, it is a deliberate choice in favour of transparency and precision, ensuring that the story of these wines is told directly from its source, without intermediary narratives or ambiguity.

In 2017, I formally began a path that had always run parallel to the gastronomy I have served for more than thirty years. The vineyard and the winery were always an extension of my kitchen, in the same way as the vegetable garden, the livestock farms, or the fishing boats. My kitchen was never a closed space fitted out with stainless steel and lighting. It always existed where raw materials are born, and where real relationships are formed.

If there is one thing I can be proud of, it is the people I have worked with over the years. Producers who honoured their word, whose dedication you could taste in the dish or in the glass. Many of these collaborations became, quite literally, friendships. That is where the name Philia comes from.

Nine years ago, I chose to work the way I had always known how: with honesty, mutual trust, and a single guiding principle — the wine lover who places their trust in our label. In any long-term collaboration, even when intentions are aligned, different understandings can gradually emerge regarding quality, authenticity, and responsibility towards the consumer.

That is exactly what happened.

The partnership with the central distributor of Sous le Végétal ended definitively in 2024. It was not the result of a single disagreement, but of two different conceptions that had gradually formed over time regarding how a wine should be presented to the world. A difference that could not be resolved through meetings or contractual adjustments, but reflected a deeper divergence in how we understand responsibility towards the land, the growers, and those who trust our wines.

Within that partnership, a story about the origin and creation of these wines circulated that did not fully correspond to reality. With time and repetition, it became increasingly established in external communication. I asked for it to be corrected more than once. The distributor never made that correction, even though several importers have already restored the wines' true origin. As long as the inaccuracy remains uncorrected at its source, it continues to create confusion in the market and misrepresents the wine for those who trust the label.

The true story of this venture has been publicly documented for years, in the texts here

https://www.philiawinery.com/post/sous-le-vegetal-living-encounter-with-the-terroir-of-samos and here https://www.philiawinery.com/post/muscat-volcan. There, the entire journey is laid out: the collaboration with the cooperative and the growers of Samos, the commitment to expressing the volcanic terroir, and the philosophy that took shape in the vineyards and the winery as the work unfolded.

In the world of natural wine, authenticity is not limited to what is in the bottle. It also extends to how that wine is described. A wine can be technically pure, yet still misrepresented by the narrative that surrounds it.

A wine cannot hold two identities. The producer, the distributor, and everyone who contributes along the way each holds a distinct and equally respected role. What cannot be transferred, however, is the authorship of the wine itself and the true story of its creation. These belong exclusively to the place, the growers, and the winery that produces it.

Philia remains deeply rooted in Samos, working closely with growers and the local community to ensure each wine reflects its true origin and sense of place.

Each new Philia label corresponds to a single vineyard parcel, a single vintage, and a single fermentation. It is not a blend of different lots assembled after the fact to match a stylistic profile. It is the direct record of one specific point on Mount Karvounis — without mediation and without compromise.

The sole exception is Omnis. As its name suggests, it is deliberately a blend, presented exactly as such. Transparency does not require that every wine be single-parcel; it requires that every wine states precisely what it is.

Philia is not a reinvention. It is the natural evolution of a body of work that matured alongside the vines of Samos. What changes today is not the substance, but the clarity: every bottle now bears witness, directly, to the truth of the winery, the growers, and the place that created it.

From here on, every wine carries a single identity: that of its origin.

Seek out the new Philia Wines labels through our allocation page and our network of importers.