AMMONITE
Santorini
It has been years that we attend a specific plot in Santorini, observing how it expresses itself in the winemaking. Known as “Thalassina” this plot is a very old piece of land located in the highest spot of Megalohori, which steadily expresses the most typical characteristics of Santorini’s Assyrtiko with impressive intensity and, at the same time, finesse.
Our “AMMONITE” is the wine that this plot gave birth to.
Our aim is to highlight both the variety and the plot. As always, the true face of a wine is hidden inside the stainless still tanks. We use stainless still tanks along with a very small portion of the wine passing through old barrels, which discretely complements and softens the impressive, even for Santorinian standards, acidity that this plot gives. The winemaking process goes on in a very frugal way which focuses on expressing the varietal characteristics. With this tremendous acidity and high alcohol, one would expect a firm, sturdy, pompous wine. However, the words best to describe Ammonite would be balance and elegance. At the same time minerality dominates on the nose, without however overshadowing the wine’s complexity.
Ammonite is a fossil: A bridge between land and sea. It is a concept that unites Santorini and Nemea and this is the reason why it is our logo after all. On Ammonite’s label one can see a sequence of numbers, widely known as Fibonacci Sequence. It is a geometric progression that defines the shape of the spiral, the shape of Ammonite itself, the golden section, thus, the perfection one can find in nature.
The new creation from GAIA WINES is here to re-introduce Assyrtiko’s gifts and to reveal its ability to age over time. AMMONITE, a wine with a unique origin but also with a unique ripening process, which offers to the famous white variety of Santorini, it’s ability to behave like a red wine.
Created entirely from the harvest of the island’s rare century-old vineyard, it combines the know-how and the courage of GAIA WINES ιn a perfect way. Having rested for over 15 months within its organic mud, and with regular care from the winemakers’ experienced hands, and combined with a small amount of wine left for months in new French oak barrels, it offers an exciting profile: Large structure, impressive taste length, and complexity. It is an Assyrtiko that, with the correct storage and care, can continue to improve year by year.
Its name is inspired by the company’s emblem, the ammonite, a fossil of a marine organism, and the embossed artwork on the label. The Fibonacci mathematical sequence captures its geometric harmony.
Whenever you hold an “AMMONITE” bottle in your hands you have the rare opportunity to enjoy a white wine that stands exceptionally well next to countless dishes, from shellfish, fish, to red meat and rich sauces.
A soil with a big porosity formed by volcanic activity and extremely poor in nutrients being mainly composed of pumice. The lack of organic matter on the soil results in a self-sufficient vineyard with no infection by phylloxera. The absence of water is typical but the available humidity is retained and fed to the plants through the porous soil.
A typical Mediterranean climate. Relatively mild winters with lower temperatures followed by warm, windy and dry summers. The rainfall intensity, the occurrence of heat waves in June until the beginning of July, the night humidity in July and August determines the quality and quantity of the vintages.
This self-rooted vineyard of Assytiko, οver a century years old, has a particularly low yield per hectare (320-380 kg). All these elements in combination with one of the noblest white grape varieties in the Mediterranean, the indigenous Assyrtiko, create rare, precious and unique wines.
Our winery is situated on a beach, on the east side of the island, between Kamari and Monolithos hamlets. The industrial stone building was once a tomato factory, built at the beginning of the 1900s.
Today, the high-tech equipment and the cutting-edge facilities of the winery guarantee contemporary winemaking and ideal conditions for high quality production of ASSYRTIKO.
