Santoríni in a glass

Santoríni is one of Greece’s premier wine producers, mostly using indigenous Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani grapes. Because of its exclusively volcanic soil, its vines were among the few in Europe to be spared the deadly plant lice phylloxera, so the original rootstock remains intact; the average age of an Assyrtiko vine, the main variety of grape, is 70 years, and the oldest vines, near Akrotíri, go back over 150 years. Assyrtiko yields everything from a bone-dry light wine to a luscious aged Vinsanto from sun-dried grapes.

Because of the wind, the vines are kept low and often protected by woven cane; some fields look as if they’re growing baskets. Famous in Venetian times, especially for its sweet high-alcohol Vinsanto which survived long ship journeys better than most (they also make vinsanto in Tuscany and elsewhere, but it may have been invented on Santoríni: the EU found that there wasn’t enough documentation to prove it, though).