It Started with a Garden

Kyriaki (Kiki) Chatzisavva started farming organically because she wanted to provide her two daughters with pure, healthy products. For Greeks, wine and olive oil are household staples, so Kiki’s journey into viticulture felt like a natural evolution from her veggie garden. From there, implementing regenerative practices was less of a choice and more of a natural progression.

With a background in biology and oenology, Kiki started Hatzisavva Vineyards in 2014 as a 2-hectare farm in Northern Greece. It has now expanded to 12 hectares, where she produces low-intervention, wild-fermented, unrefined, and unfiltered wines. A one-woman show, Kiki does everything from driving the tractor to sales, building deep relationships with her customer base thanks to their shared beliefs around cultivation practices.

Rooted in Resilience

Like so many farmers, Kiki is on the frontlines of climate change. In 2022, a massive fire in the Dadia forest pushed wildlife south. Boars, badgers, foxes, and other animals appeared on the farm and started eating the grapes. In 2023, the largest fire in Europe to date ravaged the area. All of Kiki’s vineyards burned, destroying 7 hectares of love and care and wiping out all of Hatzisavva Vineyards’ production. To continue, Kiki rented 5 hectares of vineyards near Greece’s border with Bulgaria, two hours from her home. In 2024, she lost 3 hectares of production—a devastating financial blow—when hail hit the area.

These extreme weather events, combined with no snowfall for five years, long droughts, high temperatures, and hot summer winds, have caused heat and water stress for the vines, making cultivation unpredictable. This is evident in the harvest, which has shifted 1 to 1.5 months earlier.

While juggling 7 hectares recovering from wildfire where everything needs to be removed and replanted and 5 hectares that must be cultivated from scratch and will take 5–10 years to yield production, she remains committed to implementing regenerative practices. She continues to support the vines in developing deep, strong roots to improve soil health and moisture retention.

Persevering Through Crisis, Planting for Tomorrow

Kiki’s hope is that more farmers will change their cultivation methods to work with nature instead of against it. Living on the frontlines of climate change, she knows how critical this shift is. Though she has every reason to give up, Kiki continues to persevere because she believes regeneration is the future. Every day, she works hard for a better future. As she says, “Nature will find its way to continue. The question is what we humans are going to do to adapt to the new circumstances and survive.”