Estate Argyros, Santorini Assyrtiko

Fabulous bite and intensity. This is high energy, vigorous dry wine with a citrus and saline character. It wakes up the senses! Made from 50 to 60 year old vines on Santorini! Pour this out for six friends as an aperitif instead of a top quality gin.

The terroir of Santorini is famous: a rugged, spectacularly beautiful volcanic island where dense, heavy black basalt and super-light, white porous pumice dominate the soil.  The winds are hot and dry, there is very little water and as a result, the viticulture is uniquely designed to protect against one and preserve the other. The total absence of clay from the soil, makes this a phylloxera-free island, and as a result many of the vines are 200, 300 years old. Really! All are ungrafted. Assyrtiko is the grape, now widely planted in other parts of Greece, but Santorini is its home. Its marvellous ability to produce strong but vibrant, crisp, energetic and minerally wines is world famous, and from Argyros there is a range of different styles to compare. Argyros Estate owns 40 hectares of vineyards, and the grapes from these vineyards are used for the Estate wines. In addition purchased fruit is used to make up 50% of the Santorini Assyrtiko. The general principle is to make wines without new oak influence. In addition, we have also been utterly seduced by the world-famous Vinsanto (one word please!). The Argyros versions are much be-medalled worldwide and ally the magnificent acidity of the Assyrtiko to the powerful sugar concentration of dried grapes. They spend 4, 12 or 20 years in barrel before bottling. During this time they concentrate and oxidise gently developing sensational layers of complexity.