Karamolegos Terra Nera Red

This is a volcanic red from Santorini, blending 50% Mandilaria with 50% Mavrotragano, two indigenous island reds. The winery reaches back three generations: grounded in grandfather Artemis Karamolegos’s winemaking tradition dating to 1952, it made its modern leap in 2004, when grandson Artemis invested in the production facility and the estate’s own vineyards and produced appellation wine for the first time, growing into one of Santorini’s most dynamic estates. Santorini’s terroir is unlike anywhere else, the vineyards grow in the black ash, pumice and lava of the caldera, soils so infertile and phylloxera resistant that the vines are famously ungrafted and among Greece’s oldest. That volcanic, low yielding ground concentrates the fruit and stamps the wine with minerality and salinity, while Mandilaria contributes deep color and firm tannin and Mavrotragano, an almost extinct Santorini variety revived in recent decades, brings dark fruit, structure and savory depth. Karamolegos keeps it fresh, aging mostly in stainless with only a small fraction in old oak. Notes of fresh red fruit, spice and Mediterranean herbs in an elegant, round style with fine tannins.