Yiannis Flerianos is the winemaker at Semeli Estate winery located in Corinth PGI on the Peloponnese of Greece. He was born in Athens in 1972 and began studying Chemistry in 1990, originally planning to become a teacher. After helping his enologist mother in the lab, he discovered his passion for winemaking. He earned his B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Athens, then moved to California to complete an M.Sc. in Food Science/Enology at UC Davis, focusing on off-flavors during fermentation. An internship at Robert Mondavi in Napa followed before he returned to Greece.
After military service, he worked as a consulting winemaker for several wineries. In 2021, he joined Semeli Winery in Nemea as head winemaker and became the winery’s director in 2025. Alongside his winemaking work, he teaches courses and seminars in winemaking and wine tasting for consumers and trade professionals, and frequently serves as a juror in international wine competitions.
Media Inquiries: yflerianos@semeliestate.gr | https://www.semeliestate.gr/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
I was never into making the “best” or the most powerful wine of the world. Obviously, all winemakers, we feel happy and proud when our wines get medals in competitions. Several of us are also into wines with a “sense of place”. But personally, I believe in wines with finesse! In elegant wines, tasty wines, wines that someone would love to enjoy over dinner or/and share a bottle with a friend. I am not sure if this makes us unique, but it is definitely a major part of our philosophy. My team and I believe that our wines should bring pleasure, and this drives us every day.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
In Greece, there are hundreds of “ancient” varieties scattered all over Greece, especially on the islands. It would be amazing to have the time and the resources to travel around, collect cuttings of these varieties, plant them ungrafted in sandy soil (where phylloxera cannot grow) and make wines out of them. It would be fascinating to vinify using both ancient (amphorae, etc.) and modern techniques. Most likely, some of these wines wouldn’t excite a modern oenophile, but I am positive that there would be some gems also
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Semeli Nemea Reserve 2021. 2021 was my first vintage in Semeli. I am not sure I knew 100% what I was doing then, but I surely knew one thing: making a Nemea wine with the fruit typicity of the variety and long aging potential is not an easy task. On the other hand, 2021 was a vintage with some “heat” that concentrated the fruit without “burning” the aromas. Using my previous experience from all over Greece, I was able to pull through and make this elegant wine (one year in French, 225L – barrels and one year in bottle before release). Read my review of Yiannis’ 2021 Nemea Reserve.
Bonus Question: Why Winemaking?
Winemaking for me, is “scientific cooking”. One must have an applied scientific background, to know viticulture, biochemistry, microbiology,… but making a good wine, one cannot rely only on numbers. You taste the wine and “add some more salt or pepper”. Furthermore, like a good chef, when the wine is nice, people smile and have fun! Making people smile, nowadays, it’s not an easy task…