In June, winemakers and other wine pros from around the world convened in New York City for the International Volcanic Wine Conference, created and hosted by master sommelier John Szabo. Knowing that many wine drinkers are unfamiliar with volcanic wines, we asked Szabo to recommend some bottles that serve as an entry point to the category. “It’s a big category—it covers literally hundreds of grape varieties in every known climate that grapes are grown in—but if I had to distill it down, for me, volcanic wines tend to be more savory than fruity,” says Szabo, also partner and principal critic for WineAlign.com and author of Volcanic Wines: Salt, Grit and Power. “Folks are looking for something new, unique, hyper-local that you can’t find everywhere else, and the volcanic wine world provides a lot of excitement for discovery.”
Gai’a ‘Assyrtiko by Gai’a’ Wild Ferment, Santorini, Greece
“Winemaker Yiannis Paraskevopoulos is one of the key figures in the recent history of Santorini,” says Szabo, pointing to the winemaker’s experimentation, such as fermentations in acacia wood and aging bottles under the sea. Assyrtiko is a white varietal native to Santorini and the Aegean Islands. “The Assyrtiko Wild Ferment is a wine of terrific complexity, aged half in steel, half in wood, with warm climate–defying high acids and low pH thanks to this [active] volcanic island’s curiously low soil potassium content,” says Szabo. “It’s one of the wines that put Santorini on the world [volcanic] wine map.” $48.99, wine.com
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This Article was originally published on IMBIBE Magazine
