Santorini Wine Tours

True, you could relax on a beach and watch spectacular sunsets over the Cyclades, with a glass of wine and a bowl of olives, but Santorini deserves to be explored. We’d recommend a visit to the Koutsoyannopolous Winery, otherwise known as the Santorini Wine Musuem, where you can learn about the viticulture processes on this volcanic isle and how the picking, pruning, tools and stamping the grapes all manifest into the best wine in Greece.

The Art Space Winery in Exogonia also a top recommendation. Again, small scale artisan wines produced with traditional wine making equipment. Using only organic grapes, the owners produce just 10,000 bottles per year, meanwhile the walls are adorned with local pieces of art, mostly for sale. It truly is quite an intriguing place to visit.

The volcanic soils, high winds and low rainfall have a huge influence over Santorini wines. Over 70% of the vineyards on Santorini consist of the Assyrtiko vine. This grape can hold its acidity and grows well in the mineral rich soils, meaning a low pH count. The dry white wines such as “Nychteri” also age particularly well. If the Assyrtiko is blended with Athiri and Aidani, the sweet wine of Vinsanto is produced and was a firm favourite in the days of the Byzantine empire – it’s a wine with history! Winemakers on Santorini do produce red wines but it’s far outweighed by the production of white. Nevertheless, a red variety called Mavrotragano is grown here and across the Aegean.