On Monday the 28th of January 2008 we had an exclusive guided tour in the Metaxa factory in Athens. Officially the don't organise guided tours anymore, but our travelling-companions tried 2 years to arrange this tour. Only a few days before our planned trip to Athens we got the conformation they would make an exception for us.

The international brand manager herself did the guided tour of more than one hour. Beside the explanation of the different kinds of Metaxa and their special bottles they showed us a video and we could compose our own Metaxa 7-stars out of different ingredients. Beside double distillated grape-juice and muscat-wine they use a secret essence that creates the typical Metaxa-taste.

They also showed us the cellars where the Metaxa is stored in big barrels for getting extra stars. Each star stands for one year in a barrel.

The most famous barrel (number 1) contains an 80-years old Metaxa. They will open this barrel in 2008 and they will produce a limited number of bottles. All these bottles will be numbered and be signed by the master blender himself.

I'll try to get one of these bottles and if so I'll put a picture of this bottle on this site.