Assyrtiko

Assyrtiko is Greece's most celebrated white grape, native to the volcanic Aegean island of Santorini, where ancient ungrafted vines are coiled into low basket shapes called kouloura to shelter the fruit from fierce wind and sun. It is a rare white that keeps a searingly high natural acidity even in a hot, dry climate, giving bone-dry wines of lemon and grapefruit, stone fruit and a striking saline, smoky minerality drawn from the island's volcanic soil. Usually fermented dry and unoaked to keep that crystalline freshness, it ages remarkably well and has carried Greek wine onto the world's finest lists. From the famous sun-dried sweet Vinsanto to taut, mineral dry whites, it is Santorini's signature in a glass.