GAIA Wines – Assyrtiko Wild Ferment 2023

GAIA Wines is one of those houses that let you trace the modernization of Greek wine: founded in 1994 by Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, a Bordeaux-trained oenologist with a doctorate, and Leon Karatsalos, with a Santorini cellar housed in a former tomato factory between Kamari and Monolithos. Among the estate's curiosities is underwater ageing – in 2009 GAIA sank 450 bottles of Thalassitis into the sea, and of that batch only three could be recovered in 2014. The "Assyrtiko by Gaia Wild Ferment" has run since its first vintage in 2008 and wears its method in its name: "Wild Ferment" stands for spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts. The grapes come 100 percent from Pyrgos, the high sites between 50 and 250 metres on volcanic pumice, and according to the back label from own-rooted "Ungrafted Old Vines" – vines on average 70 to 80 years old, whose root systems in part reach back over three centuries.

After twelve hours of cold maceration at around 10 °C, the wine ferments spontaneously in 1,000-litre stainless steel tanks and 225-litre barrels, without temperature control and without malolactic fermentation. Ageing is split across 45 percent stainless steel, 45 percent wood – French and American oak plus French acacia – and 10 percent ceramic spheres, over roughly six months with frequent bâtonnage. 24,500 bottles came together, and the producer expressly recommends decanting the wine for about 30 minutes.

That bottle count is the real hook when you look at the vintage. 2023 was a catastrophic year on Santorini: hail on 23 April in the central zone, strong spring winds, unusual late-spring rains and a prolonged July heat pushed yields down to only about 30 percent of the average, and Assyrtiko was extremely scarce. Analytically, the 2023 turned out somewhat milder and rounder than the sharper-acid 2022 – pH 3.07 against 2.94. That such an opulent bottle emerges at all from a year of such shortage is the real achievement.

I have had this wine in the glass many, many times, and yet I cannot recall one that brought so much citrus fruit on the nose. Then on the palate this tension, without lapsing into the classic Santorini austerity – an austerity I consider overrated, too hyped, though that is already there in the word. Before the finish comes the most important thing: a wonderful texture. And then a long, long finish with exactly the right amount of residual fruit. For me this is the most opulent among the GAIA wines I know.

International criticism sits closely together: the Wine Advocate gave the 2023 a 93+, Decanter 93 (with citrus peel and salty lemon oil), Pavlos Gegas 92(+) with "very citrusy" and a window through to 2031/33, the Wine Spectator 90. My citrus perception thus coincides strikingly with what Decanter and Gegas noted. This Wild Ferment appeals to me more than many Santorini Assyrtikos that gather 94 points and more from other critics. It shows precisely that intensity need not dissolve into sharp-edged austerity.

The 2023 costs, depending on the market, between about 37 and 52 euros; the German listing at 31.90 euros is sold out, in Greece 52.10 euros is being asked. 93 points.