Cooking and Tasting in Santorini

Santorini is a beautiful island. Everything that you have likely heard about Santorini is true. It is amazing and it is touristy! Santorini is in the southern Aegean Sea and is part of the southern Cyclades group of islands.

View from Thira

The island is home to a flourishing wine industry primarily driven by the indigenous grape varietal of Assyrtiko, along with 2 other Aegean varietals Athiri and Aidani. The grapes grow in well-drained, volcanic soil and you taste that in the wines of Santorini.

If you are stopping in Santorini while on a cruise, I would highly recommend that you schedule a tour with Santorini Wine Tours. The tour will take up part of your day, giving you time to stroll the streets, eat some street food, and admire the gorgeous views. One piece of advice – stay away from the donkeys.

We had previously taken the Wine Roads tour offered by Santorini Wine Tours and it was fabulous so we signed on for the Cooking and Tasting tour during our recent trip. A newly wed couple joined us on our excursion.

The trip started at the island’s wine museum. Wine Museum Koutsoyannopoulos features a self-guided tour complete with headphones and recording devices like in any museum, a nice shop and tasting room, and beautiful grounds that can be rented for events. The self-guided tour can take up to an hour if you stop at every exhibit but we opted for the ‘short’ version. Some of the exhibits included mechanical scenes, paper mache figures that were triggered by motion sensors, that were a bit scary but meant to provide a history of wine making in Santorini.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

At the end of our ‘quick’ tour we enjoyed a tasting of local wines. The first wine that we tasted was a young and fruity Assyrtiko. This wine was very aromatic, easy drinking, and not meant to be aged. Next, we tasted a red wine called Ampelones, 2009. The wine is made from three local grape varietals: Mantilaria, Mavrathiro and Mavrotragano. Finally, we tasted one of their sweet wines, a limited production Kamaritis. This dessert wine is made from 6 indigenous grapes and aged in oak for 10 years before bottling. While I was not a fan, a bottle did end up coming back home with Doug.

After wine tasting we strolled through the village of Vothanos to a taverna in nearby Megalochori where we would participate in a hands-on cooking class.  The class took place outdoors on the covered patio of Raki Restaurant. It was a very warm day so I think they tried to keep us cool by offering an endless pitcher of local white wine.

We made 4 dishes in the cooking class:

1. Santorinian Fava – cooked and seasoned yellow lentils served as a dip.
2. Horiatiki Salad – traditional Greek salad with fresh tomatoes, onions, olives, peppers, herbs, cucumber and feta.
3. Tomato Keftedes – fried tomato balls or fritters
4. Pork with Wine and Feta Sauce

All 4 were fresh and delicious but we especially enjoyed the tomato keftedes as they took advantage of the ripe tomatoes and were fried! After chopping, stirring and frying we sat down to lunch with our new friends and enjoyed the shade of the patio. Lunch ended with a platter of local desserts, including Greek yogurt with honey and a variety of cakes (thankfully, not prepared by us).

The tour took up a good part of our day but allowed us time for a nap before heading back out for a sunset dinner.  I would say this is a ‘must do’ if you have a day in Santorini! Vaios Panagiotoulas, the proprietor, also offers a variety of food and wine tours across Greece.  Check them out at Grand Reserve Travel.