Santorini Wine

Grape varieties and wine of Santorini
© Konstantina Sidiropoulou

The Unique Volcanic Terroir of Santorini Vineyards

The cultivation of the vine in Santorini goes back 3.500 years ago. Findings from the excavations of the prehistoric town of Akrotiri show that vine cultivation, wine making and wine trade were the habitants’ important activities.

Vine is an easily adaptable and particularly tenacious plant. It is among the very few plants that managed to survive for centuries in the inhospitable environment of Santorini. It possesses a rich and strong system of roots that penetrate the solid soil of the volcanic ash.

Assyrtiko: The Flagship Grapε

The Santorini wine reflects the pure character of the variety, the micro-climate and the volcanic soil. High acidity, intense minerality and citrus flavours upfront are the key elements creating the complex character of Assyrtiko, highlighting the Santorinian earth in perfect harmony.

The main local grape varieties (Assyrtiko, Aidani, Athiri, Mavrotragano, Mantilaria) produce high-quality wines that fully express Santorini’s unique ecosystem.

The famous wine of Santorini is Assyrtiko, which dominates the vineyards on the island. The over century-old vines of Santorini find their best expression in the Assyrtiko grape by giving world-class wines.

Grape harvest or vedema or trygos
Farmers work diligently harvesting crops under the warm sun. Rolling hills stretch across the background.
Pruned grapevine stump with new green shoots
New life emerges from a pruned grapevine in early spring. Fresh green shoots sprout from the weathered wood.

Why are Santorini vines grown in baskets? The Kouloura method.

The “Meltemi” (strong north winds) and the scorching sun would destroy upright vines. To combat this, growers use a unique pruning technique called Kouloura (pronounced koo-LOO-rah).

The word Kouloura literally translates to “round cake” or “coil.” To create it, a vine dresser takes the long, flexible canes of the grapevine and wolves it into low-lying, basket-shaped wreaths. By keeping the vines in a low, heavy basket, the center of gravity remains at ground level, and the outer “walls” of the basket act as a windbreak for the delicate clusters growing inside.

The grapes grow on the inside of the basket, protected from wind and sand-blasting, while the leaves provide a canopy against the sun. As the years pass, the vine stays low to the ground. Every year, the new growth is woven into the existing circle, making the basket thicker and sturdier.

The Vineyards of Santorini - article by Angeliki Georgantopoulou, Enologist

Unique terroir

Only vine managed to survive over the centuries in the inhospitable environment of Santorini. It is an easily adaptable and particularly tenacious plant as far as the hot and dry conditions of the island are concerned, while it possesses a rich and strong system of roots that penetrate the Theraic earth. The locals call “aspa” this hard, solid ground that was created by the consecutive layers of volcanic matter including ash, lava, pumice and rust, and covered the limestone and slate subsoil during the successive eruptions.

Cultivation

Centuries of human labor are stamped on the island’s landscape and prove the efforts made by the local people to hardness their land. The cultivated area begins at a height of 300 meters and the vines go all the way down to the level of the sea. The vine dressers built dry stone walls with pieces of petrified lava, in order to protect the soil form erosion caused by the strong winds that sweep across the island throughout the year, to increase the cultivable land and to limit the loss of water due to minimal rainfall.

Every process applied on the soil – ploughing, digging of pits – aims at improving the absorption of the winter’s precious rain water. In the summer, only the sea fog that covers the island cools down the thirsty plants during the morning hours. Afterwards, the strong etesian winds (“meltemia”) and the hot sun dry up the grapes from humidity, preventing the risk of developing illnesses such as mildew and botrytis. The only intervention required for protecting the plants is sulphuration that allows for the principles of organic cultivation to be applied.

Indigenous grape varieties

Assyrtiko, athiri, aidani, mandilaria, mavrotragano, boudomato, potamisi and gaidouria, are just a few of the approximately forty grape varieties that are cultivated on 3.706 acres of Santorini’s vineyard. The average yield per 1000 m2 is very low, nearly 350 kilos; its quality, however, is extremely high. Usually the production adds up to 4.500 tones and the total production of wine up to 3.200 tones. There are years, however, with extremely low production due to bad weather conditions.

Local grape varieties produce high quality wines that fully express Santorini’s unique ecosystem. Assyrtiko is the island’s main variety as it represents about 80% of grape production. It is a multidynamic variety with excellent adaptability to the different bioclimatic conditions. That is why its cultivation has been spread almost all over Greece.

Find out more notes on the characteristics of Santorini wine varieties and its food pairing ability here.

Santorini wines labeled "name of origin of top quality".

During the ’70s the label of VQPRD (Vin de qualité produit dans une région determinée) was lawfully awarded to dry and sweet white wines produced from the varieties of assyrtiko, athiri and aidani in the islands of Thira and Thirasia. There are three types of wine that may bear the “name of origin of top quality”.

– The fresh, cool, yet exuberant dry white wine with high acidity and metallic character;
– Nykteri, that represents the traditional type of Santorini’s white wine.It is a mature, mixed wine, with high content of alcohol, aged in a barrel for a few months. It was given this name because in the past the whole vinification procedure was carried out during the night, when the temperature was low and there was no sunlight, in order to minimize the risks of oxidization and spoiling of the product;
– The exceptional vinsanto, which is a sweet, sun dried white wine. Vinsanto is produced from very mature white grapes that are dried in the hot sun of Santorini for many days, in order to give the concentrated, sweet, golden wine with the powerful aroma of raisins, dried figs, honey, dried fruits and coffee. Vinsanto matures for many years in oak barrels and is been aged in bottles for an even longer period of time.
– Besides the Santorini P.D.O. wines, the wineries of Santorini present a very attractive collection of wine like rose, red or even sparkling wine.

Visit the wineries of Santorini - Wine tasting

Today, there are eighteen (18) operating wineries in Santorini. Apart from the wine making process that takes place in their facilities, most of the local wineries offer to visitors a wine tasting experience. We definitely encourage our visitors to enjoy a wine tasting experience and discover the wineries of Santorini.

Choose and locate a winery (or even more than one) that you would like to visit, find out the open hours of its facilities, drive there or arrange a transfer with the reception of your hotel. If you wish to leave it on a specialist, you could simply select one of the private or semi private wine tours available here.

Right below, you will find a list of the Santorini wineries, organized in alphabetic order. Our e-shop offers a full list of all the Santorini wines and we ship worldwide or to your holiday hotel/villa in Santorini. To do so, follow the link right next to a winery’s name or click here for a full catalogue of all wineries and their available wines.

Wineries