Achaia Clauss

In 1859, Gustav Clauss, a representative of the Bavarian company Fels and Co., purchased an area of 60 acres (240,000 m2) of land from the landowner George Kostakis in Riganokampos in Patras at an altitude of 500 meters.

The new venture nevertheless managed to survive and to establish itself in the region through its links with the central government of the Bavarian King Otto.

Clauss died shortly after, and the company passed into the hands of a German named Gudert from whom on the outbreak of World War I the Greek government confiscated the winery as an enemy alien asset.

In 1920 it passed into the ownership of Vlassis Antonopoulos, and from then on, with a slight pause during the German occupation in World War II, the company developed rapidly.

Through the years many important people have visited Achaia Clauss: Eleutherios Venizelos, Melina Merkouri, empress Sissy of Austria, General Montgomery, Alexander Fleming, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Pavlos Koundouriotis, Aristotelis Onassis, Omar Sharif, King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, Kings George I, Konstantinos I and George II of Greece, Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, Queen Louise of Sweden, Queens Olga and Sofia of Greece, princess Marie Bonaparte of Greece and Denmark, Nadia Comaneci, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Manolis Glezos, Agnes Baltsa, Karolos Papoulias.