Santorini
Vines coiled into baskets on a volcanic island in the Aegean.
Santorini is the rim of a volcano that erupted catastrophically around 3,600 years ago, and its vineyards grow in the ash and pumice left behind. There is almost no summer rain and the wind is fierce, so growers train vines into low, woven baskets called kouloura, with the grapes protected inside. The soil is too sandy for phylloxera, so the vines grow on their own roots, and some root systems are very old even as the baskets above ground are renewed. Assyrtiko thrives here, keeping bracing acidity in the heat and producing mineral, saline whites. The island's traditional sweet wine, Vinsanto, is made from sun-dried grapes.
Grapes grown here 1
What the region makes
Bone-dry, saline and flinty, with lemon and searing acidity.
Traditionally picked and pressed at night; richer, often oak-aged Assyrtiko.
Sweet wine from sun-dried grapes, aged for years in barrel.
Worth knowing
Kouloura baskets are woven from the vine's own canes and shield the grapes from wind and sun.
Phylloxera needs clay to survive, and Santorini's volcanic soils have almost none — so the island's vines grow on their own roots.
Try this region if you like bone-dry, salty, mineral whites.
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