If you walk into a bar or restaurant and it serves one Greek wine, odds are it’s an Assyrtiko. To raise the stakes, you can bet dollars to dolmas that it’s an Assyrtiko from Santorini, the grape’s volcanic homeland in the Aegean Sea.
It’s a surprisingly safe wager. Despite the fact that Greece has some 300 indigenous wine grapes, and even though only 3% or so of the country’s 64,000 hectares of vineyards are planted to Assyrtiko, Santorini’s hometown hero is the most prominent Greek wine in the United States. Big-city sommeliers praise its food-friendliness and aging potential. The staunchest advocates claim that, in a blind tasting, wine experts might misidentify Santorini Assyrtiko as Grand Cru Chablis (le gasp).
Few things in wine are certain, including which grapes or regions become global superstars. Climate science, consumption trends, the fickle whims of iPhone-wielding tourists and more all had to align to turn Santorini Assyrtiko into an international ambassador for Greece’s ancient wine culture. Now that they have,
