Wine tours or wine bars in Athens

[islandhalls]

My husband and I will be visiting Athens for a few days before boarding our ship in April - can anyone recommend a winery tour? A day tour would be ideal. Also - any good wine bars in Athens? Cheers! :)

[Hlitner]

A very interesting question. Greece does produce some wines, and in fact, we have had a few that were very drinkable that were produced on the island of Santorini. However, Athens is not in a wine region and I would be surprised if you could find a worthy wine tour. As to wine bars, since bars are always opening, closing and changing ownership you would probably get the best info from your hotel concierge. When tasting Greek wines make sure you try some "retsina" wines which are quite unique (many would say awful). I suspect that after you have tried a good selection of Greek wines you will yearn for the great wines of your home state.

 

Hank

[islandhalls]

Thanks for your observations!

[pondnana]

My husband and I will be visiting Athens for a few days before boarding our ship in April - can anyone recommend a winery tour? A day tour would be ideal. Also - any good wine bars in Athens? Cheers! :)

 

The best time we had in Athens was going off the main drags into the side streets and sitting outside in a local restaurant and eating and drinking as they do. Our first visit, we asked the waiter, when we got one who could speak Eng. what he would eat and drink for lunch and to bring us that. We found this was the way to taste the local cuisine.

Diana

[CoralReef]

There is great info on wine bars and other Athens restaurants at Matt Barrett's site: http://athensguide.com/

[TinaLee]

A very interesting question. Greece does produce some wines, and in fact, we have had a few that were very drinkable that were produced on the island of Santorini. However, Athens is not in a wine region and I would be surprised if you could find a worthy wine tour. As to wine bars, since bars are always opening, closing and changing ownership you would probably get the best info from your hotel concierge. When tasting Greek wines make sure you try some "retsina" wines which are quite unique (many would say awful). I suspect that after you have tried a good selection of Greek wines you will yearn for the great wines of your home state.

 

Hank

 

You're a little devil recommending retsina Hank!! It tastes like pine sap!!

 

We're planning on doing some winery hoping on Santorini ourselves - any recommendations? I really want to try the Vinsanto on Santorini, just haven't decided which vineyard to visit yet! :)

[Hlitner]

You're a little devil recommending retsina Hank!! It tastes like pine sap!!

 

We're planning on doing some winery hoping on Santorini ourselves - any recommendations? I really want to try the Vinsanto on Santorini, just haven't decided which vineyard to visit yet! :)

 

Am really rolling on the floor laughing. The man did ask about Greek wine, and the Greeks do take their retsina seriously. It is something that a wine lover needs to experience, and I never had any retsina that tasted as good as pine sap. As to the wineries on Santorini, we are no experts. However, I would probably be struck-down by most wine lovers (oenophiles for you francophiles) by suggesting the Sigalas winery (they make a nice Assyrtiko). Its a relative newcomer to the island (some of the other wineries go back more than a century) but if fun to be a contrarian. But, if you want to spend the better part of your day tasting, you could probably get half of the wineries on the island if you move fast.

 

 

Hank

[jmlh]

Yes, the restina we can do without!! However, we are considering doing a wine tour on Santorini in July. Have you any other winery suggestions and do you think hiring a taxi would be the best mode of transportation? We realize there is bus transportation but would probably not be time efficient. Any thoughts?:)

[Hlitner]

Hmm. We have found it convenient to rent a car. But, and this is a very big but, if you want to do a lot of wine tasting and nobody is interested in being a designated driver than a taxi does make sense. Another option is to deal with a private tour company such as http://www.santoriniprivatetours.com/

and see what kind of price they charge to give you a great wine tour. If the tour is really good, and you taste enough wine, you may not care about the price.

 

Hank

[TinaLee]

Yes, the restina we can do without!! However, we are considering doing a wine tour on Santorini in July. Have you any other winery suggestions and do you think hiring a taxi would be the best mode of transportation? We realize there is bus transportation but would probably not be time efficient. Any thoughts?:)

 

We're renting two cars (8 folks) and have two non-drinkers amongst us who will serve as designated drivers. Although, I have to say on the short pour you usually get at a tasting it would take quite a few stops to impair me (well, then, that's just ME) - LOL :D

 

We're planning on (probably) visiting the Sigalas winery, Santowines, and maybe Boutari... and maybe Gavalas! LOL!

 

and then... maybe... someone said something about there being beaches in Santorini?? LOLOL!