Gavalas Winery — Attraction in Municipality of Thira

Gavalas we heard in advance of our Santorini trip is one of the oldest wineries in the town and is one of the must try wines. So we knew we had to go!

We booked the Explore Santorini tasting experience a couple of months in advance of our trip. I recommend booking plenty in advance if you can as the winery is very small.

We were greeted by one of their employees and were seated at one of the outdoor tables a few minutes later.

They provide some light eats as well to accompany the wines.

They then have a guide to provide a history of the winery and a tasting guide to each of the wines. It was very educational and all wines were really good! We bought 3 bottles of wine to take home with us to enjoy later to remember our trip.

There were a few items that I thought were strange and would consider some negatives: -They don’t accept American Express in their location to purchase wines. It was strange because you could pay for the tour in advance with Amex, so that had me a little puzzled. -We asked for water between wine selections and then were charged a Euro or two for the water. It’s not so much about the charge, but it’s more so that wineries typically provide water during tastings (and it was done at another Santorini winery during this trip). And we purchased around 120 Euros in wine, so the water charge was nominal for the winery.

Would we come back? Absolutely. And we love the wine and look forward to purchasing Gavalas wine when we get back...

Dear travellers and wine lovers, below my comments on our visit to Gavalan winery on Oct 2023, cheers!

Positives: The place is cozy, antique and keeps an elegant vibe. The brand is a beautiful legacy of a family business, with interesting stories. The wines are well recognised all over the world, worth it to try every single one. Very unique wines, loved the experience and the pairing. Impecable bathroom and in general the location is tidy and clean, very well presented. 90% of the staff super kind, caring, welcoming and flexible (I visited the place with my mom who doesn’t drink and they were super open to do the tasting only for me) In my perception, you can feel the love and the passion for wine! Vinsanto was formidable❤️

Cons: The host who guided the tasting (cannot tell was a sommelier at all) was unexperienced, didn’t understand English well, bad listener and she rarely looked to our eyes, very weird behaviour. The amounts of wine of the taste were way less than the ones received in all my other wine tastings across Santorini. (I visited 6 wineries in total). Although you can find sings to get into the place, once we arrived we had no clue which one was the place. We stayed knocking at the door with no answer, few people left and when we were leaving when someone found the place was open with the door close.

Conclusion: Worth it to visit and experience interesting wines and a brand with...

INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.

We went during August 2020 and the measures to fight Covid-19 were excellent. We were not allowed to touch the bottles, the hosts were wearing masks all the time, and there were only few tables for tasting which were far from the others.

We asked for the 2 white, 1 red and 1 sweet wine options and we were thrilled. Our host was super passionate explaining the wines and her love for them and the winery. We wanted to try a wine aged in oak, and she brought a really good wine.

The surprise came with the red one. Our host told us we would be surprised and we were. The red wine looks like a rosé, and it's also weird because some of the tastes reminded me a white bit also a red wine. It was mind blowing.

Also de dessert wine was great. My partner is not into sweet wines and he loved it. All these wines were accompanied with some nibbles.

The tasting followed with a complimentary tour around the winery (we also had to wear masks as it was indoors and it was totally understandable), and our host was superb. Finally when we were waiting to pay, other hosts approached us and asked about our experience with the tasting and also talked about the current situation. Every single person working there was very well mannered and kind.

I'm extremely happy with our choice for the wine tasting at Gavalas Winery. If we are back we will definitely return to try different ones.

THANK...