Winemaker Notes
Santorini 2011 is a wine with a brilliant, pale yellow color and a pleasant distinctive aroma of citrous fruits. A fatty wine with a very good balance full taste (figs and plums) and long aromatic aftertaste.
It pairs excellently with seafood, poultry and other white meat dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 SANTORINI is Assyrtiko, and a rather refined and carefully crafted one that slowly evolves and unwinds, demonstrating its persistence and the ability to improve dramatically in the glass. Boutari seems to have a style, emphasizing harmony and balance, if I can add insights from what I see in Naoussa as well. This is always a more forward Santorini, without the pure power some of the others often show. If this starts with subtlety, however, it gradually becomes more impressive this year as it lingers in the glass and unfolds, showing layers, crispness and persistence that I wasn’t initially sure it had. This is a very fine performance if rather low key performance in this vintage, a harmonious, well balanced offering with surprisingly good aromatics, perhaps tinged by a hint of herbaceousness. For Assyrtiko, this has a lot of personality. I didn't start out impressed, but it was hard to give up the glass.
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Wine & Spirits
A classic Santorini, staunch and chalky, this wine's acidity adds a pleasantly bitter pithiness to its structure. Austere in flavor and rich in texture, it will become more complex and expressive with another five to seven years in the cellar, or with a plate of grilled octopus dressed in olive oil and capers.
A crisp white variety full of zippy acidity, Assyrtiko comes from the volcanic Greek island of Santorini but is grown increasingly wide throughout the country today. Assyrtiko’s popularity isn’t hard to explain: it retains its acid and mineral profile in a hot climate, stands alone or blends well with other grapes and can also withstand some age. Somm Secret—On the fairly barren, windswept Mediterranean island of Santorini, Assyrtiko vines must be cultivated in low baskets, pinned to the ground. The shape serves to preserve moisture and protect the growing grapes in its interior.
A picturesque Mediterranean nation with a rich wine culture dating back to ancient times, Greece has so much more to offer than just retsina. Between the mainland and the country’s many islands, a wealth of Greek wine styles exists, made mostly from Greece’s plentiful indigenous varieties. After centuries of adversity after Ottoman rule, the modern Greek wine industry took off in the late 20th century with an influx of newly trained winemakers and investments in winemaking technology.
The climate—generally hot Mediterranean—can vary a bit with latitude and elevation, and is mostly moderated by cool maritime breezes. Drought can be an issue for Greek wine during the long, dry summers, sometimes necessitating irrigation.
Over 300 indigenous grapes have been identified throughout Greece, and though not all of them are suitable for wine production, future decades will likely see a significant revival and refinement of many of these native Greek wine varieties. Assyrtiko, the crisp, saline Greek wine variety of the island of Santorini, is one of the most important and popular white wine varieties, alongside Roditis, Robola, Moschofilero, and Malagousia. Muscat is also widely grown for both sweet and dry wines. Prominent red wine varieties include full-bodied and fruity Agiorghitiko, native to Nemea; Macedonia’s savory, tannic Xinomavro; and Mavrodaphne, used commonly to produce a Port-like fortified wine in the Peloponnese.