Santorini - Wines to Save an Island

Wine Blast with Susie and Peter

Santorini's future is in jeopardy. This ancient, famous island vineyard risks being lost beneath the tourism industry's bulldozers. So how can its wine community fight back?
By making exceptional, characterful, inimitable wines and selling them to the world, that's how.
In this episode (our 100th Wine Blast programme, appropriately enough!) we dive into what makes Santorini's wines as distinctive and unique as they undoubtedly are. From the steely, majestic dry Santorini Assyrtiko to the sumptuous vinsantos and all the curios in between, this is a vibrant wine scene that's only getting more diverse and quality-focused.
Taking in views form the younger generation as well as more experienced hands, we discuss eye-opening topics from how the minerality of Santorini wines is exacerbated by the salt blown in off the sea to why Burgundy might be growing Assyrtiko soon.
Along the way we touch on orange wine, flor, tasting an 1847 Santorini Assyrtiko, amphorae, alcohol, the future - and Peter somehow signs up for hard manual labour.
This episode is the second and final installment in a sponsored mini-series in collaboration with Wines of PDO Santorini.
All details from this episode are on our website: Show notes for Wine Blast S4 E19 - Santorini: Wines to Save an Island.
Please do keep your comments and questions coming! Send us a voice message via Speakpipe or you can find more details to get in touch on our website.
Thanks for tuning in. Here's to the joy of wine - cheers to you!

Chapters

1. Welcome (00:00:05)

2. A critical moment in Santorini's history (00:00:22)

3. The Hollywood set-up (00:01:59)

4. Santorini voices - quote highlights (00:02:52)

5. Wine - Santorini's ultimate reckoning (00:04:00)

6. Raising a glass to our 100th episode! (00:05:08)

7. Sponsorship acknowledgement and clarification (00:06:17)

8. Assyrtiko: the ace (grape) in Santorini's pack (00:07:19)

9. Is Santorini Assyrtiko the ultimate food wine? (00:09:14)

10. Yiannis Paraskevopoulos on why Santorini Assyrtiko goes so well with food (00:10:18)

11. Tasting an 1847 Santorini Assyrtiko (00:12:51)

12. Why your Santorini Assyrtiko may taste a bit salty (00:14:21)

13. Leto Paraskevopoulou on how Santorini's younger generation is shaking things up (00:16:00)

14. On innovation...like orange Assyrtiko (00:23:57)

15. Summary so far (00:26:41)

16. Oak and Nykteri (00:27:05)

17. Vinsanto - a historic style (00:28:32)

18. Other grapes on Santorini (00:31:19)

19. Assyrtiko - coming soon to Burgundy?! (00:32:53)

20. What does Santorini's future hold? (00:38:47)

21. Leto Paraskevopoulou on the future (00:42:54)

22. Closing summary (00:45:13)

23. Outro (00:46:09)