Sous le Vegetal

Samos – Greece

Sous Le Vegetal is a project started by Vassilis Alexiou on his home island of Samos. Vassilis is a chef by training and returning to Samos after many years in Paris he decided to start making wine as his family had always done.

Samos is an island with a rich history of winemaking. Its slopes, though hard to cultivate, have been famed for the wines they produce since classical times and were exported widely across the Mediterranean.

Muscat de Samos (a Petit Grains) thrives on the islands distinct terroir and Vassilis' goal was to explore its variations and potential. He found plots of old vines on 3 distinct soils at different altitudes the highest at 980m and in 2017 began making wine from them. In the cellar he uses a mixture of vessels including anfora, concrete egg and large oak barrels. None of which mask the distinctive quality of the wines which are breathtakingly pure and distinctly mineral. The aromatics of the Muscat are balanced in such a wonderful way with a freshness that one wouldn't necesserily expect form these sun bakes slopes.

Vassilis has compiled some detailed information on his website here.