Santorini Wineries

BOUTARI

One of the prized estates of the Boutari Group, the Santorini winery, located in Megalochori, opened in 1989 and has played a leading role in the commercial development of Santorini wines worldwide, as well as in the viticultural development of the island. Boutari has brought experience and innovative thinking to Santorini, playing a pivotal role in establishing the modern parameters for today’s August harvest and helping Assyrtiko achieve its full potential. Combining modern winemaking techniques with tradition, Boutari has helped raise the qualitative standards required for the production of Santorini’s PDO wines, Their wines are focused mainly on local indigenous grapes, including the whites varieties of Assyrtiko, Aidani and Athiri and the reds of Mandilaria and Mavrotragano. They also have 6 hectares of their own vineyards, first planted in 1992, where they experiment with local varieties using traditional viticultural techniques.
GAVALAS WINERY
The Gavalas family has been exclusively engaged in the verification of the indigenous varieties grown in Santorini,
since the end of the 19th century. Up until 1920, the family produced wines from grapes grown in their privately-owned vineyards and vented in their winery (canava) in Megalochori.
This production was mainly distributed to customers throughout the island of Santorini as well as being exported to the city of Alexandria, in Egypt. Later in 1930, they started shipping the wine to Athens and Piraeus. The shipping procedure could be well described as a feast. From Canaves, mule-drivers loaded the goat-skins, filled with on to their mules and carried them to the port of Fira, where they were transferred into barrels of 600 kgs.
Then the barrels were loaded onto small boats (caiques) and were shipped to Piraeus. After the end of the 2nd World War and for the following 30 years, most of the Brusco wine was sold to the Kaloyannis distillery, where it was distilled into brandy and a lesser quantity was supplied to the Koniordos family and a number of taverns. In contrast, the Vinsanto wine was obtained by the churches and monasteries for Sacramental use.
In 1973, the Gavalas family established its own wine store in Athens which handled exclusively the sales and distribution, throughout Greece, of the main wines of Santorini: Nyhteri, Brusco, Mezzo, Mandilaria and Vinsanto.
At the beginning of 1980, when the Boutaris company established its own winery on the island, the Gavalas family became the sole supplier of Vinsanto wine to Boutaris for a period of 6 years. For the first time in 1998, the Gavalas family bottled their own production of Vinsanto at their small but modern winery (canava) in Megalochori.
Following the long-standing tradition and experience of three centuries, the Gavalas family has to carry out the verification of the island indigenous varieties aiming to introduce wines of superior quality and unique characteristics for the international marketplace.
It is to be hoped that you will also become a devotee of the wines produced by the Gavalas family.

HATZIDAKIS WINERY

Hadzidakis Winery was founded in 1997 by Haridimos and Konstantina Hatzidakis. Konstantina’s family owns vineyards in the village of Pyrgos Kallistis, on the road that leads to the monastery of Prophet Ilias. The land had not been cultivated since 1956 when the earthquake on Santorini forced her parents to leave the island.
After extensive re-planting and nurturing of older vines, they found a cave, which was transformed into a winery.
The vineyards sit at 300 meters facing north to north-east.
In August 1997 he began to operate the winery with the production of Vinsanto and the verification of the islands red variety Mvrotragano.

CANAVA ROUSSOS WINERY

Canava Roussos, the oldest on Santorini, was founded in 1839to produce high-quality wines uniquely expressing the characters of the numerous varieties of Thiran grapes.
Decades of experience have passed from generation to generation si that, with consistency, continuity and absolute respect, the expression is given to the island’s art of wine-making.
Today, Canava Roussos, faithfully adhering to the island’s traditions, values modern technology and aims at creating wines with individual tastes and bouquets, selecting fruit of the highest quality from the island’s select varieties: Assyrtiko, Athiri, Aidani, Mandilaria, Mavrathiro.

WINERY SANTO WINES

The Santo Winery, which opened in 1992, is located in Pyrgos and enjoys spectacular views of the caldera and the Mediterranean Sea. A highly modernized winery where technological advancement is in total harmony with traditional methods, the Santo Winery is built on five different levels in keeping with the environment and the layout of the vineyards that are also cultivated at varying ground levels, often called as the ”pezoules”. The greatly saves on energy as the must is transferred by gravity alone without the need for pumps or other machines. The winery opened as Santo wines Oenotourism Center in 1992, and ever since, it receives over 80.000 visitors from around the world every year. A guided tour shows visitor the process of vinification and aging of wines, and there is a wine bar at Santo Winery, where visitors can taste the special wines that have received awards for its superior quality and taste. Among the Santo, produce are a wide selection of dry whites: Santorini Assyrtiko and Santorini Nykteri, a dry white wine. At the wine showroom, visitors are shown a documentary film that traces the history of Santorini wines to the present. The charming terrace with magnificent views can host weddings and private parties, and there is also the main room with a capacity of over 120 people for hosting seminars or other special events. An assortment of Vinsanto, the sweet dessert wine, is also produced here and includes a liqueur version, Vin liqueur.

VOLCAN/KOUTSOYANNOPOULOS WINERY

Volcan Wines is a modern winery that belongs to the Koutsoyannopoulos family. The history of Koutsoyannopoulos Winery goes back a few centuries when the forefathers of the family arrived from Sparta to Syros, where they began their business by selling oil. Eventually, they settled in Santorini and began to produce wine after they realized the tremendous potential of the island in producing superior quality wines. Within just two decades, they had established a strong viticultural presence on Santorini, and they even built their own ship to export their wines to Russia. The whole story of Koutsoyannopoulos Winery, starting from 1660 to present, unfolds in their underground winery, and visitors can take a guided tour of the canava-museum to learn about this ancient winery that has been in 9 languages presents the history of the winery from the 17th century to present. Traditional methods of cultivation using coils are still employed here. Guided tours of the winery are offered to visitors from the beginning of April until the end of October.

ART SPACE WINERY

At first, the building worked as a winery till 1952, when its owner Nikolaos Argyros closed it to open another winery on the island, the famous SantoWines. In 1999, his son, Antonis Argyros restored the old chambers and reopened this old winery, naming it Art Space this time. This new winery is hosted in an adjacent underground cave, whose entrance is 8 m below the surface of the earth. The dominant material in this cave is a dense layer of pumice, 6 m thick, creating the perfect insulating environment for wine maturation. Modern technology is used to help the wine age, however, the emphasis is given on quality rather than quantity. The wine comes from organic vineyards and at the end of the tour, visitors can taste different varieties. Apart from a winery, Art Space also works as an art gallery and a museum.