The Next Big Thing for Greek Wine

Over the last decade, Assyrtiko from Santorini has gained great acclaim in the world of wine, and this has contributed significantly to the fame Greece has acquired as an emerging wine country. Assyrtiko has particularly captivated the attention of sophisticated North American markets like that of New York City. Eric Asimov, the wine writer for the New York Times, has repeatedly praised the virtues of Assyrtiko, while venues as prestigious as the three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park have embraced these wines and their distinctive salty footprint. Nevertheless, Greece also has a plethora of other native varieties—over 200 according to the Greek database—which grow on spectacular terroirs, and this cannot but prompt the question of what could be next for the country’s wine industry.

Great wines often arise from hardship. Santorini is undoubtedly such a case; people and plants alike are forced to fight the climatic extremes, arid conditions, and aggressive winds (regularly above nine on the Beaufort scale). On the island’s ancient, phylloxera-free, and volcanic soils, Assyrtiko, "King of the Aegean," delivers tiny yields that can be as low as five hectoliters per hectare (predicted yields for the 2019 harvest) but produce world-class wines marked by high ripeness and a balancing, profound minerality.

But while things are moving in the right direction, not everything is a bed of roses. Unfortunately, Santorini’s vineyard, which has been described as the "Jurassic Park of vines," is limited and facing fierce competition from rural development as the island has evolved into a tourist destination. In Thera and Thirasia, which make up the Santorini PDO region, there are currently no more than 1,100 hectares of total plantings, most of them owned by 1,000 growers—not producers. Assyrtiko accounts for 70 to 75% of these; this amounts to approximately