Domaine Sigalas, The First Name in Assyrtiko
Assyrtiko. The most iconic of Greek grapes immediately brings to mind images of Santorini, the distinctive vines, and the smell of the sea. Assyrtiko is most at home in the volcanic soils of Santorini; where the vines are trained into baskets low to the ground to protect the fruit from the island’s harsh wines. However, it is also grown as far north as Drama in Macedonia. It’s a versatile grape used in Vin Santo sweet wines as well as dry varietal wines. As a dry wine, Assyrtiko displays a yellow-gold color with mineral, pear, apple, and citrus blossom aromas and flavors. Assyrtiko can also be found blended; often with other native grapes Athiri and Aidani but increasingly also with Sauvignon Blanc.
Domaine Sigalas
Domaine Sigalas is one of Santorini’s leading wineries. Long have I admired and enjoyed their wines. 
Honestly, I really just love Santorini Assyrtiko full stop and enjoy wines from several of the island’s producers. But I think there’s something particularly special about Domaine Sigalas. Founded in 1991 by the Sigalas family, the winery focuses on a creative relationship with the traditions of the island of Santorini, technical savvy, and quality. Producing some 300,000 bottles a year and with a wide international distribution, Domaine Sigalas has built a reputable name in wine.
I was lucky enough to meet president and CEO Paris Sigalas as well as some of the winery’s other staff at the 2019 Oenorama event. They were so incredibly friendly and will to answer all my wine geek questions and in turn were fascinated that I work with Turkish wine. I learned how their passion for Assyrtiko has lead them to experiment with bottlings of Assyrtiko that go beyond simply single vineyard. Domaine Sigalas wants to create a cru system for the island. I was able to taste several of their cru wines at Oenorama. To be perfectly frank, I cannot say how distinct I remember each of them being…but we’d also been tasting for a pretty good while at that point and I don’t spit.
Regardless, I walked away from their booth even more of fan and with a warm invitation to please come visit them on Santorini any time. An invitation I will happily take as soon as I can. Until that day, I will content myself with drinking and buying their wines every time I visit Athens.
Domaine Sigalas Αμ 2018 Tasting Notes
The Domaine Sigalas Αμ is one of the winery’s entry level wines. However, low price does not mean low quality for the Sigalas family! The name of the wine, Αμ (Am) is not a word, but the letters of the two grapes in the blend: Assyrtiko and Monemvasia. Aromas of tropical and stone fruits dominated the nose, accompanied by soft white flower petals. The flavors were all elevated in the mouth with a fresh, silky texture slipping across the palate. Lively acidity balanced a medium alcohol of 13% abv and medium body.
A rich and lovely wine from PGI Cyclades!
Domaine Sigalas Σαντορίνη Tasting Notes
The Domaine Sigalas Santorini serves as my main go-to Assyrtiko. No fancy names for this one. A PDO Santorini wine, 100% Assyrtiko, the simplicity of its name says it all.
As this is my go-to, I’ve recently had two different vintages. So we’ll start with the 2017. A medium intense gold color revealed a fruity wine with white fruits and a hint of the tropics wrapped around a mineral-driven core. Flavors of melon, white fruits, freshly-pressed apple cider, and mineral unfolded with some lemon and grapefruit pith hitting mid-palate. A dynamic mouthfeel of vivacious acidity off-set the high 14.5% alcohol. Very dry, long finish topped it off.
The 2018 took a wee step down in alcohol with “just” 14% abv. Burnished gold in the glass with an intense explosion of citrus, lemon blossom, tropical fruit, and wet quartz stone. Can wine sing? Because this one did! One sip and I practically did too. Bone dry countered by a nervy acidity with flavors of lemon zest, rind, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and the sea.
Domaine Sigalas Επτά Χωρια Μεγαλοχωρίου 2015 Tasting Notes
So that’s a whole lot of Greek to unpack. This wine comes from Domaine Sigalas’s Seven Villages, or cru, series. As much as I’d love to have purchased all of them, I limited myself to one, the Magalochior. Made with 100% Assyrtiko from grapes in the Magalochior village, the wine aged in steel tanks then on its lees for a year before bottling.
I know absolutely nothing about the village Magalochior except that it produces a brilliant gold Assyrtiko with mature fruit and floral aromas. That’s good enough for me! The nose started off with the wet stone and sea aromas that are such a hallmark for this beautiful grape. Intense aromas of golden apples, ripe pear, quince, acacia and almond blossoms, and raw almonds followed. A sip and then, Shazam! I actually wrote that in my tasting notes.
A very exciting mouthfeel. Crisp, nervy, tension…shazam indeed. Throw in a Snick! Pow! even. Palate flavors reflected and amplified the nose. If flavors were pictures than this was a mixed fruit and almond orchard planted in rocky soils on the seaside! Crazy 14.9% alcohol but balanced perfectly and serving only to give some weight to the energetic mouthfeel.
So, one village down and six more to try!
Domaine Sigalas Kavalieros 2017 Tasting Notes
The Kavalieros is a single PDO Santorini vineyard, premium wine from the Domaine which I received as a birthday present. This wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and remains on the lees for 18 months. It is bottled two years after harvest.
Bright straw-gold color with the pour releasing mineral-driven aromatics of quartz and flint smoke. From there it takes on all the personalities of lemon from lemon blossoms, to the peel, to lemon-infused salt. Medium body with a mouthwatering, searing acidity. Aromas are elevated on the palate, warmed by the highish (14%) alcohol, and rounded out with a hint of crisp, green apple. Lingering smoky finish.
As much as I enjoyed the flavors of the Kavalieros; the wine left an impression that was less flavor and more feeling. It presented very textural. Like drinking seawater if seawater were delicious and lemon-flavored!
If someone asked me to encapsulate Domaine Sigalas’s wines in a few words they were be: energetic, mineral, and exciting. I can’t wait to back to Greece and get more.