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Alkmini Karakosta ’03: Restoring Villas and Vineyards on Ancient Grounds

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High on the hills of Evia, Greece, you can hear goats calling, church bells ringing in the distance, and the powerful regional winds, which may reach speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour. It is here, at the Montofoli Wine Estate, where alumna Alkmini Karakosta ’03 finds inner peace and quiet.  

The restored Venetian House at the Montofoli Wine Estate

She and her family have spent nearly four decades here, restoring five historic villas, nurturing grapes in the ancient method, and welcoming guests from around the world. When her father bought the estate in 1986, the buildings were unrecognizable. Poison ivy climbed the walls, staircases were covered with earth, and the roofs had long since fallen in. Her father acquired the land with a vision to “awaken the sleeping beauty.” Little by little, the Karakostas family would reveal the history that lay only inches from the surface.  

Clearing the land and renewing the villas would take more than twenty years. Located on a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, chipped pottery, bronze fragments, and ancient architecture lay forgotten in the soil. Before her family, many civilizations had settled here as long ago as the Late Bronze Age in 2500 BCE, then the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Venetians, the Catalan, the Byzantines and finally the Ottomans. It was the earth beneath that would dictate the pace; and in holding so much of the past, would determine the future as well.  

The Montofoli estate approximately 100 years ago 

When the restoration was complete, the estate counted five villas, rendered with historically accurate features. The vineyard had grown lush with grapes, and together they were producing a flagship dessert wine from the four indigenous varieties dessert wine planted on the estate in 1987. They had become the custodians of Montofoli and its history.  

In 2000, Alkmini Karakosta felt the winds change. She came to AUP to study comparative literature, and she quickly met students from all over the world. “In Greece, I thought I was a bit special—my mum is Swedish, so I grew up with two cultures—and then I come to AUP and the students speak five languages and have lived all over the world.” Eager to take it all in, she explored Paris on foot, visiting countless museums and exhibitions. On campus, her chambre de bonne on rue de Grenelle became a gathering spot for her friends. “They seemed to enjoy the food I cooked,” she laughs.  

After AUP, she would return to Greece temporarily but soon left for Sweden with her young family. She was eager to apply her AUP degree by working in museums and libraries, but once again, she found herself working in the Swedish wine monopoly known as Systembolaget. “I heard the clink of the wine bottles, and I said, okay, this is where I belong.” 

She moved back to Greece in 2019 with her husband and their children, this time seeing the estate in a new light. Karakosta’s father had passed away and in a moment of transition, the young family decided to take over the family business as a team.  

“This is something we do in Greece, you always want to give back to your ‘birthplace’” she says. Together with her husband Nikos, they brought Montofoli Wine Estate into a new era of hospitality, education, and world-class award-winning wines. Teamwork, she says, is what made it all possible.  

In the following years, they would open the estate for visits, guided tours, wine tastings and private events. 

Students visiting the Montofoli estate in 2024

But even on an estate steeped in history, Karakosta has her eyes on the future. In recent years, she and her team have observed that “the winds have changed.” The heat has become sweltering. As a child, she and her siblings used to harvest in September, just before the school year began, but today, all the grapes must be picked by August. Inside, AC units have been installed in historic buildings. The constant changes have underlined for her the need to stay adaptable, informed, and well-prepared.  

Even as they respond to the climate crisis with creativity and swiftness, she wants guests to savor the moments they spend at Montofoli. “We’re here [on this Earth] for a very short time. We want guests to relax and go back to their roots, close to nature.” This means taking the time to unplug, sleep deeply, savor the locally grown food of Karystos, absorb the region’s history, and taste the wine that time alone can ferment to perfection. 

Karakosta hopes Montofoli will become a spot for education as well, where students can learn about history and the arts in the form of interactive seminars.  

Most recently, AUP Professor Daniel Gunn came to visit Karakosta at Montofoli. Twenty-five years after their first class together, Karakosta watched over the dinner table as Gunn, his family, and her teenage children engaged in rich conversations, which for her, recalled a special time at AUP—where cross-cultural exchanges made ancient fields of study feel new again.  

A view from the veranda of the Venetian House

In a classroom where Gunn led students in a literary debate on the heroes of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Karakosta remembers how her perspective as a Greek citizen added something essential to the conversation. On a trip to Naples, led by Gunn, she felt the joy of her classmates, some of whom had never seen the Mediterranean, and watched as they all “put their fingers on something they had read.” Ever since, Karakosta has kept in touch with Gunn and other AUP professors, finding the time to meet across Greece and the world.  

This summer, I finally managed a trip to Alkmini’s wine estate, Montofoli. My impressions were of light, wind, views into the far distance; of colors, scents, foliage; of cultivation, care, scrupulousness, precision; of history laid out in the earth; above all, of welcome. My family and I spent two magical days on Alkmini’s estate; we hope to return next year.

Professor Dan Gunn

Those connections, made in the classroom, in the streets of Paris, or over the dinner table at Montofoli, become even richer with time. If you are debating whether to make a life-changing trip to Greece, AUP or beyond, Alkmini Karakosta will tell you, from the otherworldly heights of Evia, “don’t wait—a life-changing adventure awaits you.”