The ALS Assyrtiko is an exceptional terroir driven dry white wine creation from three young Greek winemaking talents in Yiannis Papaoikonomou, Ilias Roussakis and Alexis Kolovos. Yiannis Papaoikonomou studied oenology in Athens before coming to Santorini in 2009 to work at Domaine Sigalas, where he worked as a vineyard manager and as an assistant winemaker. In 2013, Yiannis left Santorini to go to Chile, New Zealand and France for further work experience and in 2015 he finally returned to Santorini, joining the Vassaltis Winery, helping to build it from scratch with Ilias Roussakis.
The ALS 2021 was produced from a manually picked cluster selection in the vineyards. Harvested very early in the morning, the fruit from Santorini was then transported to Syros in a refrigerated truck where it underwent direct pressing with racking after 12 hours. After fermentation, the wine saw bâtonnage for four months and then lay “Sur Lie” for circa 12 to 13 months.
Tasting the ALS with Yiannis in London recently after his return from working a harvest in South Africa.
ALS Extreme Terroir Assyrtiko 2021, Santorini, 13.5% Abv.
The 2021 vintage was an extraordinarily difficult vintage across the island of Santorini. All the more reason for the ALS team to put in the extra effort to deliver a wine with excellent purity, tension and freshness. The aromatics are subtle but complex, boasting notes of peach skins, wet straw, oatmeal, sweet herbs, oyster shell and basaltic stony minerality. The medium bodied palate is cool, lean, and taut, bristling with a vibrant acidity and tightly packed flavours of white peach, green pear, toasted almonds, and a subtle tangerine peel pithiness. The wine shows a fine balance and a delicate salinity with a certain “maritime affinity,” finishing with bright acids and a sleek textural precision. Not quite the intensity and power of previous releases, but certainly a great success for the vintage. Drink on release and over the next 5 to 8+ years.
(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)
Wine is available cellar door for circa £65 per bottle. Currently imported by Flint Wines.
ALS is the exceptional terroir driven dry white wine creation from three young Greek winemaking talents in Yiannis Papaoikonomou, Ilias Roussakis and Alexis Kolovos. Yiannis Papaoikonomou studied oenology in Athens before coming to Santorini in 2009 to work at Domaine Sigalas, where he worked as a vineyard manager (under the guidance of a consultant) and as an assistant winemaker. In 2013, Yiannis left Santorini to go to Chile (Vina Maquis), New Zealand (Oyster Bay) and France (Chapoutier) for further work experience and in 2015 he finally returned to Santorini to literally help build the Vassaltis Winery from scratch with Ilias Roussakis.
After working the 2023 harvest in South Africa, Yiannis returned back to Santorini to focus on his various projects including the magnificent ALS extreme terroir white wine. What makes this wine special is the way it retains all the characteristics that have made Santorini Assyrtiko great and certainly world famous – Salinity, acidity, nervy freshness, volcanic minerality, and its maritime influences both on the nose and palate. Top Santorini Assyrtiko whites are expensive wines to buy these days, but I can’t help feel than so many of the top names have struggled to reach the heights of quality seen in exceptional vintages like the 2017s. Nowadays, the wines just seem fatter, riper, oilier, less fresh, less mineral, less nervy, less saline and generally less volcanic… all the features that should set these great wines apart from other Greek white wines, especially the ones from the mainland. But then you taste wines like the ALS, and you realise that some producers are still making wines that resonate with quality!
The ALS 2020 was produced from a manually picked cluster selection in the vineyards on 24th August 2020. Harvested very early in the morning, the fruit from Santorini was then transported to Syros in a refrigerated truck where it underwent direct pressing with racking after 12 hours. After fermentation, the wine saw bâtonnage for four months and then lay “Sur Lie” for 13 months. The 2020 was bottled on the 10th February 2022. Production is very small, only circa 1,300 bottles, so you’ll need to be very quick if you are going to successfully buy a bottle.
ALS Extreme Terroir Assyrtiko 2020, Santorini, 13% Abv.
6.8g/l TA | 3.08pH | 0.3g/l VA
The 2020 dry white Assyrtiko from Yiannis Papaoikonomou and the Absinthos LP project is an incredibly vivid wine release that simply oozes volcanic terroir. A translucent pale straw yellow in the glass, the aromatics span the full array of mineral, herbal, and fruit notes all tightly wound under a magnificent maritime sea breeze veil. Wonderfully pure and precise, the wine reveals layer upon layer of briney salinity, basaltic rocks, roasted almonds, white toast, yellow plum, white peach, yellow citrus and green pear with a light dusting of dried green herbs. The palate too is packed full of flavour fireworks, conveying a real sense of seashore complexity, crashing waves, and volcanic beaches. This 2020 offers stunning fruit purity and a bright, salty, piercing acidity that is so integral to premium Santorini Assyrtiko. With a little more time in the glass, delightful hints of nectarine, oyster shell and hazelnuts develop, all intertwined with a delicious wet river stone basaltic minerality on the finish. Sublime balance, invigorating acids and a mouth-watering salinity make this one of the most impressive Assyrtiko’s produced from Santorini. Drink now and over the next 3 to 5+ years.
ALS is the exceptional new creation from three young Greek winemaking talents in Yiannis Papaoikonomou, Ilias Roussakis and Alexis Kolovos. Yiannis Papaoikonomou studied oenology in Athens before coming to Santorini in 2009 to work at Domaine Sigalas, where he worked as a vineyard manager (under the guidance of a consultant) and as an assistant winemaker. In 2013, Yiannis left Santorini to go to Chile (Vina Maquis), New Zealand (Oyster Bay) and France (Chapoutier) for further work experience and in 2015 he finally returned to Santorini to literally help build the Vassaltis Winery from scratch with Ilias Roussakis.
Ilias studied agronomy in Athens and oenology in Montpellier. He started to work in Santorini’s vineyards, working at Sigalas and Hatzidakis while he also worked at T-Oinos on the island of Tinos as chief oenologist. His broad based experience helped him to consult at wineries all around the Cycladic islands with great success. The third member of the team behind ALS is Alexis Kolovos, who originally studied agronomy and now works as a landscape architect all around the Cyclades. But his goal was always to manage a vineyard and finally with the ALS project, this has become a reality.
While sharing the same vision for Santorini’s terroir, there is also a strong friendship that connects the three ALS partners. In 2015, they finally got the opportunity to rent a vineyard in Imerovigli with a 25 year contract…. that you can find on Google maps at:
36.436530570174845, 25.423992561987845
The vineyard is 2,5ha and certainly wasn’t in a great condition when they took it on. Year after year, they started renting more vineyards and also started renting fields to convert into vineyards. They created a company which today runs 6,5ha of healthy, productive vineyards in Vourvoulos, Oia, Megalochori and Imerovigli.
While most of their grapes are now sold to wineries like Vassaltis, they just couldn’t resist the temptation to vinify a part of their own grape yields and so in 2018 they decided to make their first wine. With the help of their good friend Nikos Chatzakis, a fellow winemaker on the island of Syros, who agreed to host them and allow them to vinify ALS in a corner of his premises, their first pure Assyrtiko creation was born.
Selecting the only the very best clusters from every plant, they harvested their first grapes on the evening of the 19th of August 2018, loading a refrigerated truck before taking the ferry across to Syros. Four hours later they were pressing the Assyrtiko whole bunch grape clusters in a pneumatic press. They kept the juice in a tank for a day, with low temperatures to let it clarify a little and then racked the wine the following day. The juice was pumped gently into their small inox tank where the fermentation took place at 20-21 degrees centigrade with selected yeast. The wine stayed on its lees for 12 months with battonage for 4 months before being bottled on the 11th of July and spending an additional 16 months in the bottle before being released. The current release is still the 2018 but they also produced 1,300 bottles in 2019, 2020 and 2021. From 2022, they hope to increase their production quantity.
ALS Extreme Terroir Dry White Wine 2018, 14%, Greece
RS 2.5 | pH 2.97 | TA 6.8 | VA 0.4
This is certainly a unique expression of Assyrtiko unlike any other wines I have tasted from Santorini to date. With 12 months ageing on its lees in tank and a further 16 months ageing in bottle, the aromatics show complex layers of bruised yellow orchard fruits, bees wax, ripe pears, chamomile tea, briney sea breeze salinity and pronounced mineral nuances of crushed basalt and gravel. There are some truly alluring, dusty, leesy notes but the nose still retains impressive purity, focus and depth. The palate is broad, plump and quite glycerol with soft, creamy, spicy yellow fruits, green herbal tea nuances, spicy almonds and walnuts and then yet more savoury peachy, salty, briney maritime complexity. This certainly is a very impressive maiden release white wine with exceptional depth, palate concentration and a mellow, harmonious balance. The wine coats the palate and from the last swallow, the flavours resonate with leesy, savoury intensity and persistence for over a minute before the clean, soft acids bring the extravaganza to a final curtain call. An extraordinary creation. (Only 1,300 bottles were produced)
