Ammonite Assyrtiko, Santorini PDO, Gaia Wines 2023
Vinous 92 (2025)
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Why this wine
Santorini's vines are trained into baskets on the ground to survive the wind, some over a century old and never grafted because phylloxera cannot live in volcanic ash. Assyrtiko here is searingly mineral and saline. One of the most distinctive whites on earth.
At a glance
- Grape
- Assyrtiko
- Region
- Santorini, Greece
- Alcohol
- 14.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Medium (5-10 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Seafood, Salads, Cheese
What our customers say
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How it tastes
Rich, powerful and austere yet deliciously smooth: zesty citrus wrapped round a backbone of refreshing acidity and an ever-present smoky flintiness. Great balance and finesse. Assyrtiko 100%.
The producer
Gaia was founded in 1994 by Leon Karatsalos and Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, pioneers of the modern Greek wine revival, with wineries in Nemea and Santorini. Ammonite comes from Thalassina, an old plot at the highest point of Megalohori, where ungrafted, self-rooted vines with root systems more than three centuries old are woven into kouloura baskets on the volcanic soil to shelter the grapes from the wind and the blowing volcanic sand; the yields are tiny and everything is hand-picked. Yiannis and his daughter Leto gave the fruit a 12-hour cold soak, fermented 92% in steel and 8% in second-use French oak with no malolactic, then left it 15 months on the lees with seven months of bâtonnage. 2023 was brutal on Santorini — a fraction of the usual rain, April hail, unheard-of June rain and July heatwaves cut Gaia's Assyrtiko crop by 65% — but what survived was excellent.
Food and drinking
Good with grilled octopus, sea bass, oysters and feta-heavy Greek salads. Drinking well now and will develop for five to eight years. Serve at 10–12°C. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.