Grape

Assyrtiko

Assyrtiko is by far Greece’s most renowned white grape variety, associated most famously with the volcanic island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea. Following its notable success, it is now grown successfully all over Greece and beyond in Clare Valley, Australia, South Africa and California, being the first Greek grape to become international. It has developed a reputation as being a versatile grape variety, producing wines in a multitude of styles, from fresh, mineral white wines to oaked, worth keeping ones and from bold complex reds to rıch matured dessert wines, such as Vinsanto. Compact clusters of large, moderately thick-skinned berries, late budding and late ripening. Vigorous and productive, resistant to drought, disease and wind and capable of maintaining high acidity up to the final stages of the ripening period. In Santorini it is trained in the characteristic baskets, sitting close to the ground and named “kouloures” by the locals.

Producer

Hatzidakis

In 1997 Haridimos Hatzidakis started an important chapter in Santorini’s wine making history by establishing his winery. He had earlier in 1996 started to replant small vineyard plots near the village of Pyrgos Kallistis, some of which abandoned since the earthquake of 1956. The first bottles of the winery, Santorini & Mavrotragano, were released in May 1999. At present the winery works on grapes grown on 10 hectares of vineyards found mostly in the villages Pyrgos Kallistis, Megalochori, Emporio and Akrotiri at altitudes between 70 and 350 meters and with mainly South or Southeast orientation whilst maintaining low yields.