Estate Argyros - Wines of Membliarus
Santorini's premier private vineyard owner since 1903, with 130 hectares of ungrafted vines averaging 80 years old (some over 200). The volcanic terroir produces intensely mineral Assyrtiko. Tours include cellar visit and tasting of their award-winning range including the 96-point Cuvée Monsignori.
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- 🍷 Log Memory
These vines are over 220 years old — older than the United States Constitution. The Argyros family has been plowing this specific parcel with mules since 1903 at the Monsignori vineyard surrounding Estate Argyros winery (Episkopi Gonia). The technique is called kouloura — four to six canes woven into a low basket sitting 10 to 20 centimetres off the volcanic aspa. The roots descend 25 metres into volcanic earth, and because the soil contains almost no clay, phylloxera louse has never burrowed into Santorini. Every vine is on its own original, ancient, ungrafted roots. Arrive 30 minutes before your booked tasting (reservations via estateargyros.com) and walk the vineyard rows freely. Look for the oldest, most gnarled trunks — thick as a fist, twisted like rope, bark the colour of charcoal.
🔄 BACKUP: If you arrive without time for a vineyard walk, the tasting room has full-length windows overlooking the vineyard — you'll see the kouloura baskets from your seat during the tasting.
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Cuvée Monsignori is a single-vineyard Assyrtiko from the 220-year-old parcel you just walked — named 'The Master' by Venetians when these vines were already ancient. The 2022 vintage scored 96 points, with notes of grilled citrus, white pepper, dried herbs, oyster shell, and smoky gunflint. What you're tasting is 220 years of volcanic stress and 25-metre root depth translated into acid and mineral tension. Book the €40 tasting at Estate Argyros (90 minutes, 7 wines, cheese and cold cuts, open May–October 10am–9pm). When the Cuvée Monsignori is poured, ask the guide to show you which vineyard rows visible through the window are the Monsignori parcel. The Vinsanto — made by laying grapes under Santorini sun for 12–14 days, then aging in French oak for 12–20 years — received 100 points from Wine & Spirits in 2018.
🔄 BACKUP: The €15 tasting (60 minutes, 4 wines including Vinsanto) delivers the story and the Vinsanto. The Cuvée Monsignori can be purchased as a bottle in the estate shop (approximately €40–50) to open later.
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Panagia Episkopi church (Mesa Gonia, 600 metres southeast of the winery, GPS: 36.3999, 25.4516) is the oldest church in Santorini, built between 1081 and 1118 on orders of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The original frescoes inside date to 1100 AD — during the Ottoman occupation they were plastered over to protect them. Herodotus recorded that when Kadmus, Phoenician prince of Tyre, stopped at the island then called Kalliste during his search for Europa, he left behind his kinsman Membliarus and a group of Phoenicians. Their descendants inhabited this island for 8 generations — 3,000 years before this church was built. The vine they found here in volcanic soil is the Assyrtiko you just tasted. After your tasting, walk to the church (open daily 10am–12pm and 2pm–5pm, free entry). Stand inside and let your eyes adjust to see the surviving Byzantine frescoes.
🔄 BACKUP: If the church is closed, walk around the exterior and into the adjacent ruins of Mesa Gonia ghost village — crumbling cave houses and stone alleys destroyed in the 1956 earthquake take 20 minutes to explore and are equally arresting.
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Grilled octopus and Santorini Assyrtiko is not a pairing — it's a convergence of geography. The octopus comes from the same Aegean waters the Phoenician colonists sailed, the Assyrtiko from the volcanic soil those colonists found. Drive or walk to Kamari beach (2km east of Estate Argyros, 25 minutes on foot) and find any taverna with an octopus hanging to dry on the terrace. Order a glass of basic Argyros Assyrtiko (€6–10) and grilled octopus (€15–20). The mineral tension in the wine — oyster shell and gunflint from the Cuvée Monsignori — cuts through the char. Look up at the hillside above Kamari and you can see the vineyard terraces where your wine grew. The black sand beach formed from the same 1600 BC eruption that enriched the soil that gives Assyrtiko its impossible minerality.
🔄 BACKUP: If Kamari feels too touristy, walk into the village of Episkopi itself and find To Psaraki or another local cafe. Ask for the house wine — it will be Santorini Assyrtiko. The quality of the terroir means even house pours carry the volcanic story.