Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko 2023

I tried this on a dock in Oia five years ago and I have been chasing the feeling ever since. Cold, salty, acidic enough to cut through anything the kitchen sent out, and unlike any white I had ever had. Assyrtiko grows on Santorini in a way that makes no sense until you see it. No trellising. The vines are trained into low circular baskets, kouloura, that sit flat on the ground to protect them from the relentless Aegean wind. The soil is pumice and volcanic ash. The island has not had phylloxera, so many of the vines are over a hundred years old on their original rootstock. You cannot replicate this anywhere. The wine that comes out is not like any other white in the world. Lemon zest, sea salt, wet stone, a flinty finish like a struck match, and an acidity that makes you sit up straighter. Paris Sigalas is considered the best Assyrtiko producer working and his estate bottling is the one to buy. At $30-38 this is a steal for something this unique. Drink it cold with anything from the sea. Or age it five years and watch it turn into something even stranger. A cellar without a Sigalas in it is incomplete.