Gaia Winery Santorini — Attraction in Municipality of Thira

Visit to Gaia Winery this afternoon was fantastic.

Table for two on the beach, tasting five of their wines - three whites (Assyrtiko, Moschofilero and an Assyrtiko/Roditis/Moschofilero blend) a rosé (Agiorgitiko/Syrah) and a red (Agiorgitiko). Our sommelier was really good - she described all the wines, provided a lot of information, then left us alone to enjoy sampling the wines at our leisure.

All the wines were very good but (not included in the tasting) their white Santorini Thalassitis does stand out - we tried a small glass and bought a bottle.

The wines were accompanied by some delicious cheeses. Here, quoting from their menu, as a record for my reference:

"GRAVIERA" FROM IOS

Yellow-gold cheese, produced from fresh pasteurized cow (80%) and sheep (20%) milk. Tasty and balanced.

"FRAGKOSYRIANI" FROM SYROS

The cheese is produced in limited quantities, exclusively from Pasteurized milk, mainly cow milk and a small quantity of sheep and goat milk, with at least three months of ripening which gives a spicy flavor and intense, full taste. Its golden skin makes it look like Parmesan.

"VOLAKI" FROM ANDROS

It takes the name from its round shape. Soft and butter taste produced from 100% cow milk.

"MPOYRNIA" FROM ANDROS

The Andriotic version of Kopanisti made from 100% cow milk. A soft yellow-ivory cheese with intense pepper taste and good thickness.

This last cheese really surprised me. It was a white (or off-white) cheese that tasted like a...

We liked Gaia’s grand tasting a lot - 8 wines for 18 euro per person. Really, really good wines. We also got some bottles for home. The good news are, that if you have no check in luggage, you may get some bottles from the airport where the markup is not high. We also liked calm atmosphere in this place, the view to the sea. Service was good and polite. They also arranged a taxi to the airport (25 euro fixed price - unfortunately for 6 minutes drive, but it’s 45 minutes by walk).

What we didn’t like a cheese plate for two was too basic and not worth it. We had wine and cheese tasting (peering wines with cheeses in other winery and was much better at the almost same price - 7 wines with 7 different greek cheeses was 29 euro per person, otherwise, honestly wines here was better). Just would be good to add some appetisers in the menu which would be appropriate for wines. Also, unfortunately the location is a little be tricky if you come here by bus from Fira. They told us that we have to get bus to Kamari, but actually if you get this bus, it not stop close to the Winery. So you should get a bus to Manolithos, it goes first to the airport and some other villages to the east cost, and there’s a special stop called Imperial where is a really close to the winery (but it took more than 30 minutes to get there with bus, so we late to our...

Three of us arrived at 15:40, and despite there being only 4 tables occupied (maybe a total of 10 people), we were denied service because apparently all tables were reserved for 16:00. We informed them that we only wanted a glass of wine and would leave before 16:00 due to our flight, but the staff said clearing the tables would take too long and did not allow us to stay. We even suggested having our drinks while standing, but this was also denied. It's important to note that this wine tasting place doesn't serve any food, so cleaning up the table should not take more than 30 seconds, and it's an open area where people could easily have a drink while standing or walking around the beach. At one point, they even said that they did not want us to stay because it would be hard for them to attend all the customers at the same time! A staff member later apologized and offered free drinks, but we chose not to stay at a place with such poor service where the staff didn't want to accommodate us. As a result, we went to Captain Loizos next to the airport and highly recommend it; they had great food and excellent service by the beach. In summary, we were denied service because the staff didn't...