A winemaker walks away from his family’s firm and keeps his vineyards.

Kir-Yianni grew out of a family split. Yiannis Boutaris was born into the Greek wine family behind Boutari, the Naoussa house his grandfather founded in 1879, Kir-Yianni says. English Wikipedia says he trained in chemistry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in oenology in Athens, and worked for the family company from 1969 to 1996, then left to create his own wine company based on two estates, one at the abandoned village of Yianakohori and one at Amyntaio.

The company gives its founding year as 1997, and the British wine writer Jamie Goode, writing on Wine Anorak, likewise described Kir-Yianni as a spin-off from the Boutari group that went independent that year; English Wikipedia gives 1998. The vineyards were older than the company. Kir-Yianni says Boutaris planted 40 hectares of Xinomavro at Yianakohori, on the eastern foothills of Mount Vermio near the town of Naoussa, in 1970, and in 1985 planted 20 hectares of white varieties on the higher ground west of the mountain, at Amyndeon. Those two plots became the estate.

The red grape is the core of the house. Xinomavro, Naoussa’s native variety, is the speciality, Wine Anorak noted, comparing the grape to Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo, with vineyards set at between 300 and 700 metres on the slopes of Vermio and grapes bought in when needed. The company says Ramnista, a Xinomavro from Naoussa, was the first wine Boutaris launched when he left the family business.

A nickname for a name, and vineyard names for the wines.

The name is personal. Kir is a Greek form of address meaning “Mr” or “Sir,” and the winery says it took the name from the way everybody used to address its founder, “Kir-Yiannis.” In print the brand writes it with a hyphen, and the company styles it in capitals, KIR-YIANNI.

The wines carry short, place-like names rather than a single flagship mark. Reviewing tastings held in 2007 and 2008, Wine Anorak listed among them Petra, a white from Amyndeon; Akakies, a rosé; Ramnista; and Diaporos, alongside Paranga, Dyo Elies and a Syrah. The appellations matter as much as the names: Naoussa for the Xinomavro reds from the eastern slopes of Vermio, and Amyndeon for the higher vineyards on the other side of the mountain.

The founder was a public figure in his own right, and that shaped how the name travelled. English Wikipedia records that Yiannis Boutaris served as Mayor of Thessaloniki from 2011 to 2019. He died in Thessaloniki on 9 November 2024, the Associated Press reported; the German trade title Meininger and the British trade weekly Harpers also marked his death. The estate published its own farewell under the heading “Farewell to Kir-Yiannis Boutaris.”

The house has also made a point of environmental commitments: the company says it was the first Greek winery to join International Wineries for Climate Action, in 2024.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all Greek wine houses and spirits: Boutari, Kourtakis, Tsantali, Kir-Yianni, Plomari, Tsilili and Skinos. Wine and spirits brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from family houses that still carry a founder’s name to labels that now belong to much larger drinks groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a corner shop to a restaurant list.

A wine or spirits brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single bottle than by a label, a name and the place it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown far beyond the place where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its wine or spirit is actually made and bottled.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its wine or spirit is made and how its labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A second generation, and a first estate outside Macedonia.

Kir-Yianni remains a Boutaris family business. Its winemaker and chief executive is Stellios Boutaris, the founder’s son, whom the company and the trade press name in both roles. The wine is made at the estate’s own wineries in its home regions: the company describes vineyards and wineries in Naoussa and Amyndeon, in Greek Macedonia, with the main estate still at Yianakohori.

In November 2025 the estate moved south. Kir-Yianni announced that it had bought a majority stake in Domaine Sigalas, the Santorini winery at Oia, from a company owned by the Greek shipowner Thanassis Martinos, The Drinks Business, Harpers and Wine Industry Advisor reported; the terms were not disclosed. The reports said Kir-Yianni had first supported Sigalas in 2009 and had managed its vineyards and an investment plan since 2020, and that the deal gave the company its first estate outside Macedonia, spanning Naoussa, Amyndeon and Santorini. Domaine Sigalas, founded in 1991, works old-vine Assyrtiko and other native grapes on the island’s volcanic soils, the same reports said. In the company’s announcement Stellios Boutaris called the purchase the strongest expression of the family’s belief in Santorini’s vineyards and wines.

The purchase came just over a year after the founder’s death and almost three decades after the split from Boutari. Before it, Kir-Yianni’s two vineyards had sat on either side of one mountain in northern Greece. The company says its wines are now sold in 54 countries.

Two brands, one family name. Kir-Yianni and Boutari share a surname and a home town in Naoussa but are separate companies, and the two names should not be treated as one business. The estate’s own site is kiryianni.gr.

For a design guide, Kir-Yianni shows how a winemaker’s nickname can become a house name, and how a small set of vineyard names can carry an estate from one grape on one mountain to a third region. Compare Boutari, the Naoussa family house it split from, and Antinori, the Florentine family wine house. For this guide we use Xinomavro garnet, Vermio green and straw with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Kir-Yianni’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.