Gai’a 2022 Ammonite Assyrtiko Is the Best Greek White We’ve Ever Had

As longtime fans of Greek wine and especially Assyrtiko from Santorini, we were recently blown away by Gai’a’s latest release, 2022 Ammonite, a single-plot Assyrtiko from 300-year-old ungrafted vines. Named for the ancient, coiled shells that are the winery’s symbol, Ammonite is from the winery’s first vintage under the leadership of the co-founders’ two daughters, Leto Paraskevopoulou and Sofia Karasalou, who have expanded their winemaking and viticulture roles alongside their fathers. While Paraskevopoulou’s father Yiannis is known for his complex “wild ferment” Assyrtiko using only indigenous yeast, Leto is putting her own touch on this new vintage of Ammonite with a yeast selection meant to allow “the grapes and the soil to speak.”

Made in an extremely limited quantity of 6,000 bottles—which is larger than normal due to a generous harvest—only 216 bottles of 2022 Ammonite are available in the U.S. market. Now overseeing the management of all Gaia’s vineyards on the Greek mainland as well as Santorini, Karasalou says that at 656 feet above sea level, Thalassina vineyard is one of the best places on the island to grow Assyrtiko. Its volcanic rock soils have excellent water-retention properties, which help maintain crucial soil humidity during Santorini’s hot, dry months. In addition, she tells Robb Report, “The southwest orientation offers shelter from the intense northern winds that can threaten flowering in spring and early summer.” While the exact age of each vine is not known, the vineyard’s interconnected root system has been in existence for more than three centuries. 

The Assyrtiko vines here are trained using the traditional Kouloura system, a method developed on Santorini. “This technique involves braiding the vine canes into a basket shape, close to the ground,” Karasalou says. Visitors to the island may not recognize vineyards as such; grapevines have the appearance of giant bird nests or baskets rather than the trellised vines common to other wine regions. The form has its advantages: “It protects the grapes from the island’s strong winds and intense sunlight, reducing the risk of sunburn or damage,” she says. Being low to the ground also mitigates evaporation that would happen during long, hot, sunny days. The combination of old vines and volcanic soils leads to “grapes with exceptional concentration and a particularly intense expression of minerality,” Karasalou says.

A cold, wet January in 2022—which even saw several days of once-in-a-lifetime snowfall on Santorini and neighboring islands—offered abundant groundwater, and a cool summer resulted in a high level of acidity and freshness. Chief of production Paraskevopoulou tells Robb Report that the season “produced fresh and aromatic wines with excellent structures, great aging potential and astounding elegance.” She carefully chose specific yeast strains to accentuate the “classic Santorini mineral flintiness” and then matured the wine on its lees for 15 months, with 8 percent aged in used French oak barrels before final blending. “This helps integrate the sharp edges and give the wine some extra volume,” she says, in effect mellowing out the overall profile while adding a sense of roundness on the palate.

Gai’a 2022 Ammonite Assyrtiko offers a bouquet of lemon and nectarine with touches of river rock and saline. Full and round, this wine is energized by twin veins of acidity and minerality wrapped around citrus and smoke flavors that linger on the palate long after the last sip. A benchmark for what can be achieved with Assyrtiko, this special bottling is not only the culmination of an exceptional site and an extraordinary vintage but a glimpse into things to come from one of Greece’s best wineries.

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