Day 10 – Santorini: Exploring Oia & A Wonderful Wine Tour

We started our morning at 9am and enjoyed breakfast on our balcony with the view of the calderas. We had booked a wine tour at 4:30pm so we had the majority of the day open and unplanned. We decided to cruise around Santorini on our motorbike and head to Oia. I entered Oia Castle as our destination point to park the bike and explore. Upon arrival you have to walk through the pathway up some stairs to get to the castle. It was a cool lookout point and apparently gets extremely popular during sunset. But after last night’s sunset in Imerovigli I don’t think anything will top that for me.

After exploring the castle we stopped at a cute art shop & bought two beautiful scenic paintings of Oia during the day and during sunset. Stelios started chatting up the woman selling the paintings and she told us that the shop was owned by two young local artists and that she just worked the store during the day. She was SO happy that an Ellina (person from Greece) came into the store so she could speak Greek and tell us the local tea. I understood the jist of what she was saying (the words in Greek that I know I recognize and understand when I hear them) but there were parts that Stelios paused to translate so I could follow along. She was also happy that we actually bought something. She said most tourists just look around the store, some for over an hour, never buy anything and leave. I totally get window shopping but spending an hour in a TINY shop and not buying anything seems crazy.

After the art shop we started to get hungry and figured we should have a decent meal before the wine tour. So we stopped at a local cafe called Ellinikon. Our server came over and introduced himself, Stelios started talking to him and the server complimented Steli on his Greek and asked where he’s from. He replied Chios, and the server goes “ah Chios” and pounded on his chest twice (AKA I gotchu bro) as a sense of Chiote/Greek pride. He sent over an extra basket of warm pita and 2 shots of VinSanto (the local dessert wine of Santorini) at the end of our meal. Greeks are very hospitable people in general, most of the restaurants we go to give you a free shot, dessert, or snack before or after your meal free of charge which is a nice touch (sometimes you don’t even get bread in America) But you occasionally get a little extra something when you’re Greek & I am LOVING the local treatment.

After lunch we walked through the busy streets of Oia, there were lots of luxury stores and bougiee brands for shopping which I guess is another draw for this area. Of course the famous bookstore in Oia that I wanted to check out, Atlantis Bookstore, was closed 🙁 even from the outside it looked really cool. oh well maybe next time.

Around 2pm we went back to the apartment to cool off before the wine tour. At 3pm we walked to the Platia in Firostefani which was a main pick up/drop off point for a lot of tours near where we were staying. A black van pulled up and we were introduced to a lovely couple, George & Tonia. They were very funny and charismatic telling us that because they work together and are married they are basically together 24/7, so sometimes they start the morning fighting but then stop and put their business faces on, keeping things very professional, and then at the end of the work day (9pm) they start the fight back up again. Stelios and I both laughed at this. They were a comical couple for sure. Luckily George told us today was a loving day so there was no fight this morning. I also could not believe their work schedule. They do 2 tours a day 9am-9pm 7 days a week !! And the Santorini season is much longer than the other islands we visited, from March to November. That’s a LONG season and a long time to work without any days off. Kudos to them and talk about hustle!!

George drove the van to pick up the other passengers for the tour. They picked up 2 other couples on our way – the tour was only 6 people in total which made it an intimate and enjoyable experience with our two hosts. Tonia rode in the passenger seat telling us about the history of Santorini and about their wine culture.

Here’s some fun facts that I learned while on the tour:

• Every family that lives year round in Santorini makes wine, its a part of their culture – which I thought was pretty cool.
• In the 19th century a bug came over to Europe from California because the French wanted to replicate the California varieties and it ended up destroying all of the European vineyards — except Santorini because the bug couldn’t survive on the Santorini soil (volcanic ash & pommus rock, which ironically is excellent for making wine) because of this, Santorini has some of the oldest grape vines in Europe, over 300 years old, that are used for wine production in Europe
• All of the roads in Santorini are un-named and it takes 2-3 weeks to get an Amazon Delivery because no one has mailboxes at their homes so people go once a week to the local post office to check for their mail.
• Tonia also recommended we check out the Lost City of Atlantis experience (which we didn’t end up having time to do – another reason to come back!)

There was a ton of other interesting facts that I learned but this is what I can remember off the top of my head and what I remembered to jot down in the car.

Tonia told us that in total we would visit 3 different wineries and try 4 glasses at each one, accompanied with meze (tapas) at 2 and dinner at 1. This was a great surprise for us because I just thought we were just getting small tapas along the way.

Our first winery was Artemis Karamolegos (the 2nd or 3rd biggest winery in Santorini, I can’t remember). The meze spread included Graviera cheese from Naxos, Luza (Greek version of Proscitto), Cherry tomato paste, and EVOO and olives from Crete. Our wines included 2 whites, Terra Nera Rose, and VinSanto (Santorini’s dessert white – Fun fact: only white grapes are used for this wine even though the color and texture is similar to molasses).

With each glass Tonia recommended which food from our meze plate to pair it with to best complement the wine. Overall the rosé was my favorite. Onto the next winery! On our way there Tonia told us about some of Santorini’s locally produced products aside from the grapes (& it’s 21 wineries) – including cherry tomatoes, white eggplants, and fava bean.

Our 2nd winery was Anhydrous. The 1st wine was white & light bodied, great for pairing with salad. We also tried a rosé called Grace, and a red wine called St Nikolas which the owner named after his son. For food pairing we had Santorini salad, breadsticks and dip. Fava bean, eggplant dip, and kalamata olives. For dinner we had Tomato keftes (tomato balls with feta snow – delicious!), Santorini moussaka, and a delicious layered chocolate mousse dessert with ice cream. Who knew we were getting a full on dinner ! What a great surprise!

Our final winery was Venetsanos winery where we had a meat and cheese plate appetizer and tried 1 white wine, 1 rosé, 1 red, and 1 VinSanto wine for dessert. My favorite was the Rosé, and Stelios liked the red best. After the wine we walked upstairs and enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the top of the winery.

We thanked our hosts Tonia and George, took some pics and then headed back to the van so they could drop us back off in Firostefani. As we were leaving they gave us a small keepsake surprise – a mini bottle of their family’s wine & α cork that said Santorini Wine Stories. This was perfect for us because Stelios and I have a large glass vase at home full of wine corks, so this one will be a nice addition. They also invited us to their church’s annual festival on December 27th and if we ever come to let them know. Ironically enough their church’s saint is Stefanos, which would be my name day in Greek (every Greek is named after a saint and every saint has a celebratory day so when that day comes, they celebrate – similar to a birthday). That’s also the date that Stelios & I met, and the date that we celebrate our anniversary. What are the odds!! Who knows, maybe one year we’ll go.

Travel Tip: Book your wine tour in the beginning of your stay in Santorini so that when you go to restaurants you know which Santorini wines to order/which types you like best. I definitely recommend booking through Santorini Wine Stories 🙂 It was $140 per person and that included hotel pickup/drop off, 3 wineries, tapas at 2 wineries, and a 3 course dinner at 1 winery and our two hosts were so much fun!!

After the wine tour we headed back to the hotel, enjoyed the afterglow of the sunset, opened our bottle of Mastiha and FaceTimed our families to tell them the news of our engagement. All of our parents were SO happy and said they can’t wait to celebrate when we get back home.