Appellation · Greece
Santorini
A volcanic Aegean island where Assyrtiko is grown in low basket-trained vines, producing intensely mineral dry whites.
About Santorini
Assyrtiko is remarkable for keeping very high acidity even in extreme heat, which is why Santorini produces taut, saline, bone-dry whites at a latitude that ought to make that impossible.
Vines here are ungrafted and some are very old, propagated by layering rather than replanting.
Vinsanto — sun-dried Assyrtiko, sweet and oxidatively aged — is the island’s historic sweet wine, and the name predates the Tuscan Vin Santo dispute.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Santorini PDO
- Type
- Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
- Set by
- Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food
- Recognised
- 1971
- Regulates
- Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields.
The EU-level category under which national appellation systems sit. Used directly here for countries whose national term is simply the PDO — and for the UK’s own post-2020 scheme, which mirrors it.
Grapes
Wines from here
Climate
Hot, extremely dry and relentlessly windy. Vines are trained into a low basket — *kouloura* — that shelters the fruit from wind and sun and catches overnight humidity.
These are influences on how a wine turns out, not determinants of it. Picking date, yield, vine age and every winemaking decision sit between the climate and the glass.
Soil and geology
Volcanic ash, pumice and lava with essentially no clay, and no phylloxera as a result.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Vinsanto (Santorini)
Serve at 10–14°C (lightly chilled).
Try with fillet steak, grilled chicken or grilled salmon.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Wines of Greece — Greek Wine Federation
- eAmbrosia — the EU geographical indications register — European Commission