Joy and laughter at a winery with Konstantina Goula

It’s fun to work when you enjoy what you do and are passionate about it. No matter your struggles and challenges, you will find joy, happiness, and meaning in everything surrounding you. It also rubs off on those around you. It’s no wonder this family-owned winery radiates that kind of feeling.

Because of her passion for wine and winemaking, Konstantina Goula left everything to study wine and winemaking to gain more profound knowledge. That is how dedicated she is to making wine a business.

Additionally, she seeks to position Greek wines on the international market. It’s a tough job, for sure. The way she does it, it seems like she’s having fun. Indeed, that is staying true to that happy spirit she personifies and spreads throughout the rest of the winery, including with the guests who visit.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Learn about how wine permeates so much of everyday life that it becomes a part of the culture, customs, and tradition.
• Find out about wine masters courses available abroad to have a more profound knowledge of wine.
• Overcoming language barriers when studying wine courses abroad.
• Understand the dynamics of a family-owned winery and how to balance the professional and personal relationships involved.
• Learn to keep that vibe of wine connecting people and creating memories that people love to return to.

Konstantina Goula accidentally discovered the fascinating world of tasting. Believing in the power of extroversion and wanting to contribute to the promotion of Greek wines on the international market, she decided a few months later to change her professional orientation and combine her passion for wine with her love for hospitality and work in Wine Tourism. The decision to leave everything behind and pursue her dream led her to France, the capital of wine where she studied and lived for the next 3 years. Many unique experiences followed and many moves to different regions that always aimed to develop her knowledge of wine.

In 2017, she graduated from the Department of Wine Tourism, completing a professional Master of Business Administration in wine and communication at the Institut Supérieur du Vin in Montpellier. Part of the curriculum she attended includes; Tasting, Winemaking, Viticulture, Wine Tourism & History of Wine, Marketing and Communication, Public Relations and Wine Sales.

For two years she worked in the Events and Wine Tourism Department at famous wineries in Burgundy and Provence and had the opportunity to discover the secrets of different wine-growing regions. But mostly, she realized that this elusive world of art and wine belonged to the same spectrum of expression of emotions.

In her 3 years of wine wandering, she travelled a lot, visited endless vineyards and cellars of the last century, tasted the finest wines, discovered the delicious world of gastronomy and toured various wine routes. When they asked her what brought her to France, she explained that just as many follow their loved ones to other places, so she decided to follow her own love, which is none other than wine.

However, throughout this wine search wherever she was, she was always drawn back like a magnet to her place. The family winery “Ktima ta’Apostoli”, in the village of her carefree childhood, was her own cultural heritage waiting for her to take over and continue it.

In September 2019, feeling that a cycle was closing, she decided to dare to return to a time when all her friends and acquaintances chose to leave Greece during the crisis. A crisis that troubled her too. Many people told her to go back and that it was reckless, but they told her the same when she left because she left behind an already successful career path. But they are one of those beautiful indiscretions that do not obey logic but have the power to change lives.

Connect with Konstantina Goula:

• Website: https://ktimatapostoli.gr/

Topics Covered:

02:44 – The beautiful City in Greece where Konstantina lives
04:06 – How wine and everything about it became a part of her life [ plus sharing how she left everything to follow a career path in winemaking]
07:24 – Talking about studying and taking her master’s in France and the challenges of learning it bilingually [English and French]
09:02 – How she prepared for the challenges ahead concerning her master’s education in France [ and how she would find English translation for her French Wine class]
11:32 – What it takes to finish her master’s course in France
13:20 – Sharing about the thesis she wrote and what it centers on [and how wine becomes an iconic part of everyday life]
15:40 – Seeing bigger demand for wine and taking the initiative to position Greek wines in the international market
17:01 – From France to working in her family-owned winery
19:04 – Balancing family and professional relationships when working in a family-owned winery
22:25 – Upcoming developments, plans, priorities, and exciting events happening for Konstantina’s family-owned winery
25:05 – Finding joy and fun in what she does
26:29 – The laughter and happiness that fills the winery

Quotes from Konstantina Goula:

“Wine is about connecting people, and that’s why winemaking is a very, very important part when you have a winery. But sharing all this with the people and having them visit you is the most amazing feeling because they are part of your world.”

“My degree, the bachelor that I had, was about English language and foreign languages. And my master’s was about wine tourism and wine marketing. So my master’s was bilingual, but mainly it was in French. And I had a very, very hard time because everything was in another language, not my mother tongue. “

“When there is a will, there is a way.”

“I needed deeper and more profound knowledge of winemaking and wine marketing. So I took the decision that for a year I’m going to stop working and I’m going to study.”

“The internship really helped me right away to put all the theoretical parts into practice. And then it really helped me to find a job. In France, there were so many job vacancies in wine tourism and events organizations.”

“Asking and being very patient really helped me to finish my master’s and then focus on work.”

“We have wine as part of everyday life. Wine as part of exceptional situations, wine as part of people coming together. And this is actually people creating memories by sharing wine. “

“Wine was also part of tradition, of culture, of customs throughout the centuries. And it’s historically proven that in ancient Greece and other civilizations, it was one of the most iconic parts of everyday life.”

“And I believe that because of the whole development of different techniques on winemaking, it’s very important to preserve all these traditions and bring them to the modern era.”

“I was always afraid that I wouldn’t be able to balance the personal relationship that you have with your family and the professional limits that you need to set when you work on a professional project.”

“What is very positive is that my dad, who is in charge with me, is very open-minded. In the beginning, he reacts because change can be very triggering. But at the end of the day, he agreed with the changes I proposed.”

“However, I understand that he [my dad] has the experience, I respect that, and we decided to take the change step by step.”