68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
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SEPTEMBER 2017
WINE
COUNTRY: Greece
ISLAND: Santorini
"TOURISM IS KILLING SANTORINI!" at was the heartfelt
cry of a winemaker who lives and works on this croissant-shaped
volcanic island, 200 kilometres southeast of the Greek mainland.
Santorini is believed to be the world's oldest vineyard site still
under cultivation. Winegrowing, according to archeologists, has
been going on here, uninterrupted, for around 5,000 years. Up un-
til the late 19th century there were 4,000 hectares of vineyards on
the island. By the 1960s, when the travel boom started, they were
reduced to 2,500 hectares.
Today this figure is down to 1,400 hectares — evidenced by the
many abandoned terraces you can see as you drive around the is-
land, and the fact that the young don't want to work the land the
way their forebears did.
Seventy per cent of the surviving vineyards are planted to a va-
riety called Assyrtiko, a thick-skinned grape that makes one of the
world's best undiscovered white wines.
e winemaking community blames the real estate developers
for Santorini's vanishing vines, reproaching them for buying up po-
tential vineyard land for new hotels to accommodate the growing
number of tourists.
e same winemaker who accused tourists of killing Santorini
told me that in midsummer this year, cruise ships that anchored
offshore debouched 14,000 visitors — in a single day. is number
virtually doubled the island's population.
If you've toured this picture-postcard place with its blindingly
white sugar-cube houses and blue doors you will know that the
narrow streets of villages such as Oia and Akrotiri just can't absorb
such an influx of bodies. (e islanders are now urging the cruise-
ship lines to practice "berth" control.)
ere are currently 15 wineries on Santorini, including the co-op
Santo Wines, and the twin pressures of tourists and the rising inter-
national demand for Assyrtiko wines have quadrupled the price of
these grapes in three years.
But what makes Santorini so special, apart from its scenic aspect,
is the way wine is grown here. Because of the heat, the lack of rain
and the strong prevailing winds — Sirocco in the spring and the
Meltemi in July and August — grape growers have had to protect
the grape bunches.
is they do by what is known as the koulara method. ey
weave a circular wreath, using the vine's canes, into a bird's-nest
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From Ashes to Grapes
Santorini is believed to be home to the world's oldest vineyard still under cultivation
