Prodromos Nikiforidis, the Architect

From Crete to Toulouse and back to Greece and Thessaloniki, the renowned architect's relations with retsina were minimal - to zero. Like any person with a mind open to the new, however, Prodromos Nikiforidis declares himself ready to try. And to accept evolution, without prejudices.

IN THE MIND OF THE ARCHITECT.

He is one of the creators who, thanks to one of his most emblematic works, managed to open the mind and perspective of an entire city. By remodeling the beachfront of Thessaloniki (together with Bernard Cuomo), the architect Prodromos Nikiforidis was able to offer the city a new "window" towards the sea, a window to light and air, which supplies the city with ideas, breaths, perspective, and access to the immensity of the horizon.
Would it ever be possible for such a person, a lover of Greece, even if he had not been nurtured from his youth in the culture of retsina, to keep his eyes and mind closed to the most Greek of Greek wines? The answer is obviously negative.
"I was born and grew up in an environment that had nothing to do with alcohol," confesses Prodromos Nikiforidis. "The family's vines produced sultanas for raisins and the father's occupation was a butcher and merchant in a family from Cappadocia - people of the mountains, who had nothing to do with the people of the coasts of Asia Minor and Smyrna. There was no alcohol in the house – besides, for many years the father lived far away.''
And the relationship with wine? "On my 16th birthday, I suddenly drank so much that for three days I lived a twenty-four-hour nightmare," recalls the well-known architect. "So, when, in my first year of architecture, in Toulouse, we met in the morning in a cafe, to start our research work in the countryside of the area, I was living another nightmare: you couldn't not drink alcohol from the morning, you couldn't refuse the farm owner you had to capture drinking eau de vie (apple spirit, mostly) at 10am! How to drink it without drinking it was the big bet...

»Later, when I started working in Paris, how could you not drink red wine at lunch when everyone was drinking? And how not to doze off after work? I can't hide it from you: alcohol and I don't have very friendly relations... I'd probably describe them as 'cautious relations'. As for the retsina, always with the dropper the number of times I drank on one of my visits to the homeland, almost 40 years ago".

LIVES IN PARALLEL(?).

And since then? What is Prodromos Nikiforidis' relationship with wine, but also with retsina? Have his taste preferences changed over the years?
"Indeed, the years have passed, and Greek wine has approached the quality of French wine", admits the well-known architect. "The wine had a leap in quality, which no one imagined. Did retsina also have this course? The simple and, above all, cheap retsina of the group, the daily accompanying drink, this unique drink of Greece, has in recent years had a corresponding upward trend in quality?
"Because 'wine gladdens the heart of man', I decided to try three retsina recommended to me by an expert on the subject. The surprise was very great and the experience unique. Nothing to do with retsina I had tasted – always in small quantities, because they could not play a leading role in the friendly meals where they took part. They were retsina-extras, while these new ones are in store for us with many quality experiences, which are worth repeating. So, retsina can now star in our meals".

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