Best Greek Island for Wine Tasting: Santorini or Crete?
Santorini is the best Greek island for wine tasting and Crete is the runner-up. Compare the islands on appellations, tasting prices and how to book a wine day.
Santorini is the best Greek island for wine tasting, and Crete is the one to pick if you want a week of wineries with a beach holiday around them. Cephalonia comes third, for Robola and its three PDOs. The other islands here each have a good reason to visit and a much shorter list of cellars that welcome visitors.
This guide compares the islands using each winery’s own website, the Wines of Greece appellation register and Decanter’s 2025 results. If you already know it is Santorini, check a date for the tour below.
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Short answer: Santorini for the wine, Crete for the wine holiday
Pick Santorini if the wine itself is the reason for the trip. It has fewer than twenty cellars that take visiting groups and more than sixty wine tours on GetYourGuide, so a tasting day works without a rental car. Pick Crete if you want more wineries to choose from and a beach week around them.
- First Greek wine trip, one day or a few: Santorini.
- A week or more, with beaches and sightseeing around the wine: Crete.
- Rare grapes and high-altitude vineyards: Cephalonia, for Robola.
- Sweet Muscat: Samos.
- Sparkling wine: Rhodes.
- A small-island tasting on a Cyclades trip: Paros, or Thirassia as a boat trip from Santorini.
Why Santorini comes first
Santorini’s vines are ungrafted and self-rooted, grown in volcanic ash and pumice and trained into low baskets called kouloura. Wines of Greece notes that phylloxera, the louse that forced most of Europe to replant, never affected the PDO vineyard, and that many vines sit on roots around 300 years old. The Assyrtiko and Vinsanto poured here come from vines that survive in very few places. The vineyards guide explains what you see when a tour stops among them.
The awards back it up. At the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards, 33 Santorini wines won medals, including three of Greece’s four Platinums. Santo Wines’ 2022 Grand Reserve Assyrtiko scored 97 points and Anhydrous’s 2019 won a Best in Show award.
Visiting is straightforward. GetYourGuide lists more than sixty Santorini wine tours, and a tasting flight at a winery typically costs €15 to €30, so a hosted day is the easy way to reach three cellars in one afternoon. The small-group sunset wine tour with Santo Winery pours twelve wines across three wineries, costs $209 a person and has nearly 900 reviews (full details). Our guide to which Santorini wine tour is right for you sorts the rest by group size and budget.
Santorini is also the island where wine is scarcest, and it shows in the price. Domaine Sigalas’s 2025 harvest bulletin expects the crop to approach 450 tonnes, the third year in a row of decline. Yiannis Karakasis MW, reporting for Jancis Robinson, puts it at 350 to 400 tonnes, against a last-decade average of 2,500 to 3,000. Growers were paid €10 to €12 a kilo for grapes in 2025, up from €0.85 in 2010. The same report calls the vintage “outstanding quality, a crisis of quantity”, so expect very good wine at higher prices. The tour prices guide shows what each format costs today.
Where Crete beats Santorini
Crete wins on choice. The Wines of Crete network lists more than 30 member wineries, and the island has seven PDOs: Peza, Archanes, Dafnes, Sitia, Handakas-Candia, Malvasia Handakas-Candia and Malvasia Sitia. Santorini has one. Douloufakis, in the Dafnes area south of Heraklion, sells a six-wine tasting for €30 that takes about 90 minutes, so a Cretan tasting costs about what a Santorini flight does.
The holiday around the wine is the other advantage. Crete gives you a week of varied days, from Knossos to the beaches, and a cellar visit fits into almost any of them. Santorini’s beaches are volcanic sand, good for a day and less so for a week.
The trade-off is planning. Crete is a large island, so pick one region, such as Heraklion and Archanes, or Chania, and build the wine days there. Santorini is small enough that one tour reaches three cellars in an afternoon.
The islands compared
Every figure in this table comes from the appellation register, a winery’s own site or Decanter’s results, as described at the end of the page.
| Island | Best for | What we could confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Santorini | The wine itself, a first Greek tasting | PDO Santorini since 1971; ungrafted vines; fewer than twenty cellars take groups; 33 medals at the 2025 Decanter awards |
| Crete | Choice, and a beach holiday | More than 30 Wines of Crete members; seven PDOs; Douloufakis six-wine tasting €30 |
| Cephalonia | Rare grapes, high vineyards | Three PDOs; Robola on 180 hectares between 175 and 800 m; Orealios Gaea tastings €12 to €20 |
| Samos | Sweet Muscat, a cheap first tasting | PDO Samos since 1970; Wine Museum tickets €5 (three wines) and €9 (guided, four wines) |
| Rhodes | Sparkling wine | Long the leader and main source of Greek bottle-fermented sparkling wine, though some popular bottlings are tank fermented |
| Paros | A wine stop on a Cyclades trip | PDO Paros since 1981; the only PDO whose red includes a white grape |
| Naxos | A Cyclades trip with local wine | No PDO; wines are labeled PGI Cyclades |
| Lemnos | Muscat, off the usual route | Two PDOs: Limnos (1982) and Muscat of Limnos (1971) |
| Thirassia | Santorini wine, one small winery | Mikra Thira: PDO Santorini wine; €35 for a guided tasting; €1 boat from Ammoudi |
| Thassos | Ancient wine history | PGI Thassos; we found no winery open to visitors |
Cephalonia, Samos and Rhodes: three reasons to look past the top two
Cephalonia is the strongest choice for anyone who cares about grapes. Its three PDOs are Robola of Kefalonia, Mavrodaphne of Cephalonia and Muscat of Cephalonia. The Robola zone covers 180 hectares on the western slopes of Mount Ainos at 175 to 800 meters, and the register notes many self-rooted vines of advanced age. The Robola Cooperative’s Orealios Gaea opens Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 20:00 and Sunday from 9:00 to 15:00, with three tastings at €12, €15 and €20. Reservations are recommended and walk-ins are welcome.
Samos is the choice for sweet wine and a cheap first tasting. PDO Samos dates to 1970 and is made entirely from Muscat Blanc. The Samos Wine Museum, open from April 1 in 2026, charges €5 for a self-guided tour with three wines and €9 for a guided tour with four. For a sweet wine on Santorini instead, see the Vinsanto guide.
Rhodes suits sparkling-wine drinkers. Wines of Greece says the island “has long been the leader and main source of Greek bottled-fermented sparkling wines, although some popular bottlings are tank fermented”. It is the one island here where sparkling wine is the local specialty.
Paros, Naxos, Lemnos, Thirassia and Thassos: the small lists
These islands have fewer cellars, so check each winery’s own website for hours and booking rules before you go.
Paros has the most unusual appellation rule of the group. PDO Paros red needs at least 35% Mandilaria, and the register says it is the only PDO wine whose composition includes a white grape, Monemvasia. Naxos has no PDO, so its wine is labeled PGI Cyclades. Lemnos has two PDOs, Limnos and Muscat of Limnos, and sits well off the standard island-hopping route.
Thirassia is the easy one to add to a Santorini trip, because its single winery grows PDO Santorini wine. Mikra Thira’s own site lists a €35 guided tour with three white wines (90 minutes) and a €50 version with a cheese and charcuterie platter. It opens from April 2 to October 31, 9:00 to 20:00, and closes on Tuesdays. The boat from Ammoudi to Riva costs €1 and takes about 10 minutes.
Thassos has PGI Thassos and a long wine history, but we found no winery open to visitors there.
Do you need a car?
On Santorini, no. Most three-winery tours include hotel pickup and drop-off, such as the wine tasting tour with snacks at $197 a person (700+ reviews). Greece’s drink-drive limit is 0.05% blood alcohol, which two glasses can exceed, so book a driver for any day that includes more than one cellar. Our worth-it guide does the arithmetic against driving yourself.
On the other islands, plan the transport before you book: a designated driver, a taxi, or a hosted tour where one exists.
How we compared the islands
We compared the islands on wineries that welcome visitors, appellation status and what each winery publishes about prices and hours. Appellation facts come from the Wines of Greece register (winesofgreece.org), prices and hours from each winery’s own website and awards from Decanter’s World Wine Awards 2025 results. Harvest figures come from Domaine Sigalas’s 2025 bulletin and Yiannis Karakasis MW’s 2025 report for Jancis Robinson. The cruise levy comes from PwC’s Worldwide Tax Summaries for Greece.
We checked everything in September 2026. Tasting fees, opening hours and tour prices change, so confirm them on the winery’s or tour’s own page. Islands where we could not confirm the basics, including Tinos and Milos, are left out of the comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Greek island is best for wine tasting?
Santorini, for the wine itself: ungrafted volcanic-soil vines, fewer than twenty cellars that take groups and a tasting day that works without a car. Crete is the best alternative if you want more wineries and a beach holiday around them. Cephalonia is third, for Robola and its three PDOs.
Is Crete or Santorini better for wine?
Santorini has the more distinctive vines and Crete has more choice. Crete has more than 30 wineries in the Wines of Crete network and seven PDOs, against Santorini’s one, and a six-wine tasting at Douloufakis costs €30. Choose Santorini for a wine day and Crete for a wine week.
Which Greek islands have their own PDO wines?
Santorini, Paros, Crete, Cephalonia, Samos, Lemnos and Rhodes all have PDOs. Crete has seven and Cephalonia three. Naxos has none, so its wines are labeled PGI Cyclades.
Do I need a car to go wine tasting on a Greek island?
Not on Santorini, where most three-winery tours include hotel pickup and drop-off. Elsewhere, plan a driver or a taxi. Greece’s drink-drive limit is 0.05%, which two glasses can exceed.
Is Santorini too touristy for wine tasting?
The island is busy, but visitor numbers fell in 2025: Santorini Airport handled about 2.4 million passengers, 16% fewer than in 2024. Cruise passengers now pay a €20 levy from June 1 to September 30, and the trade press reports a cap of 8,000 cruise passengers a day. Wine villages such as Pyrgos, Megalochori and Exo Gonia are inland, away from the Oia sunset crowd.
Can I fit a wine tasting into a Santorini cruise day?
Yes, with a private tour. The operator meets you at the port and works to your re-boarding time, and the Fira cable car costs €6 each way on top of any tour price. Our private wine tours page covers the options. The top sights day trip lasts nine hours with a single tasting, so it suits a full day more than a port call.
Which Greek island is best for wine and beaches?
Crete, which pairs more than 30 wineries with Knossos and the beaches. Rhodes is the alternative if you prefer sparkling wine. Santorini wins the wine day, and its volcanic-sand beaches suit a day better than a week.
Is Greek island wine good?
Yes. At the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards, Greece won four Platinum medals, and three of them went to Santorini wines. Appellations such as PDO Santorini, in place since 1971, set the grapes and rules, so the label tells you what is in the bottle.
Taste Santorini's Volcanic Wines at Three Wineries
Assyrtiko, Nykteri and Vinsanto poured where they are grown, on ash that has never seen phylloxera — with sunset tours finishing at a caldera-view winery. Hotel pickup and free cancellation included.
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