Wine & food · Pyrgos

Wine Tasting& Pairing.The island, in a glass.

A guided tasting through Santorini’s volcanic wines — Malagouzia, Assyrtiko and Vinsanto — poured beside the small plates that were built for them.

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Santorini wine poured at a tasting in Pyrgos

Assyrtiko to VinsantoThe island’s own grapes

Poured with small platesEvery wine has its bite

Private or semi-privateCouples, families, whole parties

The idea

Wine that could only come from here.

Santorini has been making wine for longer than almost anywhere in Europe, and it does it the hard way.

There is barely any rain. The soil is volcanic ash and pumice, so poor that the vine louse which destroyed the vineyards of Europe never took hold here — these are ungrafted vines, on their own roots, some of them very old. To survive the wind, the growers weave each plant into a low basket called a kouloura, and the grapes ripen inside it, sheltered from the salt.

All of that ends up in the glass: high acidity, a mineral, almost saline edge, and a concentration you do not get from an easy vineyard. A tasting here is the shortest way to understand the island.

The flight

What you taste.

Five wines, five plates — the line-up we are pouring now. It moves a little with the season and with what is drinking well that week.

Wine tasting — 4 wines with traditional assortments · 28,00 € per person | Wine pairing — 5 wines with our signature dishes · 60,00 € per person

01
MalagouziaAromatic white · The opener
Peach, basil and citrus blossom on the nose, dry and generous on the palate rather than heavy. It opens the table without asking for much attention. Served with tomatoes and goat cheese on rusk.
02
VidianoNative white · The rounder one
A grape that has come back into its own — apricot and melon, a soft, almost creamy middle, with enough acidity underneath to cut a rich plate. Served with codfish, potato cream, lemon, garlic and smoked herring eggs.
03
AssyrtikoDry white · The signature
The grape Santorini is known for. Bone dry, high in acid, with citrus and a mineral, salt-air finish. It is what a PDO Santorini bottle is mostly made of, and it holds up to far more food than most whites. Served with marinated chicken leg fillet with sesame and chives.
04
XinomavroRed · The structure
Northern Greece’s great red: tomato, olive and dried herbs over firm tannin. It stays alongside grilled meat instead of covering it. Served with a small lamb kebab, chopped aubergine, roasted red pepper and crispy onion.
05
VinsantoSun-dried sweet · The finish
Grapes left in the sun until the sugar concentrates, then aged for years in barrel. Figs, raisin and coffee, sweet but never cloying, and the way every table here ends. Served with a traditional bite of chocolate stuffed with walnuts.

Santorini wine poured beside the plates it was matched to

The pairing

Nothing is poured on its own.

A wine list read out at a counter is a lesson. A wine list eaten is a memory.

Every pour comes with the bite it was made for: goat cheese and tomato on rusk against the Malagouzia, codfish and potato cream behind the Vidiano, sesame-marinated chicken with the Assyrtiko, lamb and aubergine with the Xinomavro, and something sweet and slow at the end with the Vinsanto. Our chef builds the plates; our team pours and explains, in plain language rather than tasting notes.

01Tell us the date and the number of peopleCouples through to a whole wedding party. We will tell you what is possible on that day and at that hour.
02We set the tableAt our wine bar in Pyrgos, at the highest point of the island, or at the old family winery where our cooking classes are held.
03You taste, in orderEach wine poured and introduced, each plate arriving with it, at the pace of the table rather than a schedule.
04Make a day of itThe tasting sits naturally either side of a cooking class, or before dinner and the sunset — tell us and we will arrange both.