★★☆☆☆
A standard tasting and standard tapas at a premium price. We would have got more out of driving ourselves to two of the same estates. It is not a bad afternoon, it is an expensive one.
John D. · August 2026
Santorini Greece Wine Tour: 12 Tastings and the Sunset
Santorini grows wine on ground that has no clay in it and no phylloxera under it, on vines coiled flat against the wind. Twelve tastings across three estates is enough to understand why that matters.
Duration4 hours
Departs fromHotel or Airbnb pickup anywhere on the island
PriceFrom $177 per person
Group sizeUp to 15
Minimum booking1 traveller
CancellationFree up to 24 hours before it starts
Four hours across three estates
Twelve wines, not three
Across three separate estates, poured by a guide who knows what the volcanic soil does to them.
See a kouloura
The basket-trained vine, coiled on the ground to shelter the fruit from the wind. It explains the whole appellation.
Taste Assyrtiko where it grows
PDO Santorini has to be at least three-quarters Assyrtiko, and this is the ground it comes from.
Eat with it
Local cheese and cold cuts come with the tastings, which is what keeps twelve pours civilised.
Finish at the cliff
The evening option puts the last estate under the sunset, which is the reason to take it.
How the afternoon runs
The route is three estates in the island's interior and on its western rim, linked by an air-conditioned van and an expert guide rather than a driver who also pours.
There is a daytime option and an evening one. The evening is the one people book, because the last winery looks straight at the sunset.
- Pickup. From your hotel or Airbnb anywhere on the island, by Mercedes van.
- Estate Argyros. One of the island's established producers, in the interior.
- Santo Wines. The cliff-top estate on the caldera rim, and the sunset stop on the evening option.
- Domaine Sigalas. In the north, near Oia, and a different style again.
- Twelve tastings across the three. Mostly whites and dessert wines, which is what this island actually makes.
- Cheese and cold cuts. Served alongside rather than as a meal.
- Drop-off. Back at your hotel.
Who this suits, and who should book something else
This is your day if
- You like wine and want to understand a place through it
- You would rather have a specialist guide than a cellar-door pour
- You want the sunset without standing in the crush at Oia
- You are happy in a group of up to fifteen
Book something else if
- Anyone under eighteen; this one is adults only
- You want a full lunch, because this is tastings with snacks
- You mainly drink red, and this island mainly makes white
If you want a winery inside a wider day rather than a wine day, the flexible option is the Private Santorini Tailor-Made Tour: Choice of the Guest.
What’s included
Inside the fare
- Hotel / Airbnb pickup and drop-off
- Transport by air-conditioned modern Mercedes-Benz vehicle
- Expert wine guide
- Visits to 3 Santorini wineries
- Tasting of 12 wines with local cheese & snacks
- Mineral water
Not inside the fare
The listing names no exclusions at all, which is unusual and worth taking at face value.
Where you are collected
You are collected from your hotel or Airbnb anywhere on the island, and dropped back afterwards. Hotel pickups go to the nearest accessible point, because parts of this island are on a slope no van gets up.
Cruise passengers should read the operator's note before booking. This tour is designed for hotel guests and picks up in Fira town rather than at the port, so you would take a tender and then the cable car to reach it. Within 24 hours the ticket stops being refundable, whatever the tender does. If you are on a ship, a shore excursion built for one is the safer buy.
Know before you go
- Minimum age is eighteen. It is an adults-only tour, without exception.
- The wines are mostly white. With a red and a dessert wine included. That is what the island grows, not a limitation of the tour.
- Snacks, not a meal. Local cheese and cold cuts alongside the tastings, which which is enough to carry you through the afternoon.
- Groups run to fifteen. Small enough to ask a question, large enough that you will meet people.
- Pickup is to the nearest accessible point. Not always your front door, on an island built on a cliff.
- Eat something first. Twelve tastings on an empty stomach is a long afternoon.
What travellers said about this wine tour
★★★★★
Twelve tastings across three estates sounds like a lot and it is paced so that it is not. The guide knew the grapes and the volcanic soil properly, and the cheese and cold cuts were more substantial than we expected.
Nicky K. · August 2026
★★★★★
Our guide had studied viticulture and it showed in the depth of what she told us. We were lucky to be four rather than fifteen, which made the afternoon feel unhurried. Marina made it.
Trevor S. · couple · August 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is it really twelve wines?
Yes, spread across three estates, and the pours are tasting measures rather than glasses. The guide paces it, which is the difference between this and driving yourself between three cellar doors.
What is Assyrtiko?
The white grape the island is built on. Anything sold as PDO Santorini has to be at least 75 per cent of it, with Athiri or Aidani making up the rest, and the vines it grows on are ungrafted because the island has no phylloxera.
Can children come?
No. The minimum age is eighteen. The farm cooking class takes children from seven and is on the wine tours page with the rest.
Daytime or evening?
Evening, if the dates allow. The cliff-top estate is the last stop and it looks west, so the sunset is included rather than added. Sunset moves by three and a half hours across the year, and our weather page has the times.
Is it worth the price?
It divides people, and honestly so. Some reviewers call it a standard tasting at a premium fare; others rate the guide and the estates as the best afternoon of their trip. If you would be happy driving yourself to two of the same estates, do that instead. The alternative here is the catamaran day, which sells a completely different thing.
Other ways to spend the day
Book the wine adventure
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before it starts, so holding a date costs you nothing.
Book This Tour