Barba-Tzortzis

Georgiadis, the historical family of winemakers, began its journey in the early 20th century, in Jimovasi (Menderes) in Izmir, Asia Minor. The earliest protagonist of the story, the then known as Barba-Tzortzis (Georgios Georgiadis) was active in the production of alcohol (he was a chemist) and its distribution to local distilleries for the production of Raki.

Barba-Tzortzis was a very intelligent man and was dealing with various things. He loved and cared for his city and was a active member of the local community. One of his most important achievements was that he was among the people who brought the electricity to the city of Smyrna. A few months before the destruction of the city, in the summer of 1922, he took refuge with his family, wife and five sons, first in Athens and a short time later in Thessaloniki.

In the Greek co-capital, his family, together with three other refugee families from Asia Minor, created Peraia, the current suburb of Thessaloniki, with a population of about 40,000 inhabitants today. There, Barba Tzortzis, continued to produce alcohol and supplied the producers of Ouzo in Greece. He soon became known for another reason though. In 1952 he produced the "yellow liquid", which, as he claimed, had healing properties for cancer (you will find the relevant documentary from the ERT archive of the show “The Time Machine”, entitled TSARLATANOS on our site 00:47 -17:20). People used to crowd outside his home to get their hands on this miraculous liquid. In a very short time, even expatriates from America began to arrive to Peraia, skyrocketing the reputation of the liquid, the ingredients of which Barba-Tzortzis kept secret. Its high demand aroused the curiosity of the medical community and forced the local authorities to conduct an investigation. In the court that followed, Barba-Tzortzis was acquitted, after proving that he was not selling his healing liquid, but rather giving it for free to those who needed it.