Vinetum, créée en 2000, fut la première entreprise en Grèce à offrir des services de communication à l'industrie du vin à travers la création de contenu et la gestion d'événements. Depuis lors, l'entreprise s'est diversifiée dans d'autres secteurs tels que les boissons alcoolisées, la bière artisanale et l'huile d'olive.

Vinetum est connue pour être l’organisateur de la foire aux vins annuelle la plus ancienne et la plus importante de Grèce, Oenorama (depuis 1994), et pour de nombreux autres événements notament le festival de la bière artisanale d’Athènes (Athens Craft Beer Festival).

Le concours international d'huile d'olive ATHENA est présidé par M. Constantin Stergides et dirigé par Mme Maria Katsouli. M. Stergides est journaliste gastronomique et œnologique, et expert en dégustation des vins avec une grande expérience de juge dans de nombreux concours internationaux de vin. Mme Katsouli est la première sommelière en vin de Grèce et la première sommelière en huile d'olive; elle est aussi dégustatrice accréditée HOVE.

Maria Katsouli
Greece
Competition Director

Maria Katsouli is a wine and olive oil sommelier, journalist, educator, hospitality consultant and certified olive oil taster.
Maria is Greece’s first sommelier (since 1990) and one of the most respected figures in the country’s hotel and restaurant industries. In the year 2000 she started attending seminars on the organoleptic assessment of olive oil and table olives, followed by many others in olive growing, olive milling and blending, in both Greece and Italy. Today, she is considered a foremost expert in the harmonious matching of extra virgin olive oil with food.

From 2011 to 2014 she was an official member of the organoleptic tasting panel of the Greek National Interprofessional Organization of Olive Oil and Olives. She is a certified Professional Olive Oil Expert by Staregister and certified Olive Oil Sommelier by the IRVEA and International Olive Oil Academy. She has judged in many wine and olive oil international competitions, including the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and Evooleum.

She has worked as an associate for Paratus Europe (2012-2016) organizing seminars on olive oil quality control and sensory analysis and she is a permanent lecturer at the Etoile College of Hospitality and Gastronomy Studies in Athens.

She has written many articles on food, wine and olive oil for various publications and in the past has hosted a weekly TV show on food and wine for Greek television and has been a Riedel glass ambassador for Greece. She is regularly invited to speak in conferences and seminars on wine and olive oil appreciation.

She holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Pireaus and is a founding member of the Greek Sommelier Association and of Greek Women in Wine.

She is co-founder and managing director of the Athena International Olive Oil Competition organized by Vinetum in Greece.