Domaine Sigalas, Assyrtiko, Santorini, Greece 2020

“A sleek, fresh white, displaying lively Asian pear and fig fruit flavors, with accents of pickled ginger and preserved lemon. Creamy on the minerally finish. Drink now.”-90WS

To the overall story of Assyrtiko there is a chapter before and another one since Paris Sigalas. He is the pioneering winemaker who applied mathematics and other innovative ideas to oenology and viticulture to elevate Santorini’s wines to international stardom. The 1991 Santorini is his maiden vintage, the first wine to be labelled Protected Designation of Origin, marking the start of operations at Domaine Sigalas.

Coming from a winemaking family, like most Santorinians, the future mathematician Paris Sigalas spent his summer holidays on the island. Together with friends, he helped out with grape-picking and in the production of the family’s wine, a process that increasingly fascinated him.

Gradually, Sigalas took over the reins of his grandfather’s vineyard and started crafting wine by his own guidng principle: “the dynamic evolution of tradition”. It is the belief that innovation and technical savviness can coexist in a creative relationship with the ancient winegrowing traditions of the island. As Paris Sigalas has said, it was his passion for tasting and evaluating wine that eventually set the high bar for his own wines.