Santorini's Volcanic Vineyards

Santorini's vineyards look like no others on earth: because the island's volcanic ash and pumice soils never harboured the phylloxera louse that devastated Europe's vines, the vineyards remain ungrafted, growing on their own roots - and root systems here are claimed among the oldest in continuous cultivation anywhere. Against the battering meltemi wind and the near-total lack of rain, growers coil each vine into a low basket called a kouloura, a living wreath that shelters the grapes inside its ring and harvests the night's humidity. The flagship is Assyrtiko - bone-dry, saline, electric with acidity - under the PDO Santorini designation, alongside Vinsanto, the amber sun-dried sweet wine whose name is often traced to Venetian-era exports of 'vino di Santorini'. Tasting rooms from Pyrgos to the caldera rim pour flights above the blue drop, a cave museum walks the old tools and tunnels, and the August harvest happens at dawn before the heat.

The main sights

• The kouloura vines - basket-woven vineyards flat against the ash.
• A caldera-rim tasting - Assyrtiko flights above the sea-filled crater.
• Vinsanto - the sun-dried amber classic, decades-old in the glass.
• The cave wine museum - old presses and tunnels of island winemaking.

When to go

May to October keeps every tasting room open; August adds harvest energy at dawn and full terraces at dusk. Sunset slots at caldera-view wineries sell out days ahead - book, or taste happily at midday for half the squeeze.

What to expect

Tastings run notably pricier than mainland Greece, and the celebrated views are part of what you are paying for. The vineyards themselves look scruffy and low - this is not Tuscany and is not trying to be. Sort out a driver or tour before the second flight; the island's roads and its wines do not mix.

Nearby

Pyrgos village's lanes, the Akrotiri excavation and Oia at the caldera's tip.