Artemis Karamolegos

The basket-like way of pruning and "winding" the vines which is called "kouloura" is due to the harsh weather conditions that have always existed on the island, the dry and inhospitable volcanic soil and mainly the very strong wind. Thus the "kouloures"-vineyards of Santorini were invented whose cultivation is just as difficult and painful as the vines in the vertical slopes of the valley of the river Moselle in Germany. But what wonderful wines do they both produce! And how a properly aged Assyrtiko from Santorini resembles an aged German Riesling with its crystal clarity and electric-sharp acidity. Τhe vineyard of Santorini, that has avoided the devastating phylloxera due to the synergy of all the parameters, is one of the oldest vineyards of Europe. Fortunately, nature has blessed it and although the volcanic soils of the island with the strong winds create very inhospitable conditions and a completely dry environment, ... almost miraculously, the soil retain underground the water from the limited rainfall. And in the summer, the precious water resurfaces and cools the vines with the drops from the fog clouds which, like a veil of cotton, so often cover the island. In August, the strong winds that sweep the island from one end to the other remove the moisture from the grapes, thus avoiding the rot and the challenge of vine diseases.

The terroirs of Santorini, where microclimates vary from one area to the other, can provide unique and exceptional "interpretations" of the Assyrtiko variety and other local varieties of grapes and thus wines with a high level of quality with worldwide recognition. The transition from the traditional way of winemaking into a more serious process, respecting nature and its product, allowed us to have particularly interesting, and often exciting, Santorini wines for years, slowly making the Appellation of Origin Santorini, and mainly Assyrtiko, the only Greek winemaking area and the unique Greek wines - benchmarks for Greece.

The island's warm, dry climate means that vine yields are universally low. The island's vineyards give small harvests of high-quality grapes with naturally high levels of sugars and acidity. Another significant advantage of the dry, sandy soils is that they are almost entirely free of phylloxera, which cannot live in fine-grained, loose-structured soils. Santorini is apart of semicircular archipelago of volcanic islands that have been constantly subjected to volcanic eruptions since ancient times. This has formulated the topography of the viticultural areas with vineyards found on the slopes formulated by the successive volcanic eruptions. They have also produced uniquely textured soils with layers of volcabic ash, pumice, sand and basalt. High in acidity and very low in organic material the soil has high levels of essential minerals.