If you walk through the wind-swept, sun-drenched vineyards of Santorini today, you are standing in one of the most celebrated wine regions on earth. But roll the clock back to the late 1980s, and the picture was vastly different. Santorini was a rising star for tourism, yet its ancient, 3,000-year-old viticultural heritage was largely overlooked. Its wines were rustic, heavily oxidized, and largely consumed locally.
Then came Paris Sigalas.
Widely regarded as the patriarch of modern Greek winemaking, Sigalas didn’t just change the way Santorini made wine; he fundamentally changed how the world perceived it. Through relentless experimentation, a deep reverence for the land, and an uncompromising vision, he took the island’s flagship white grape, Assyrtiko, from obscurity to the pinnacle of the global fine-wine stage.
The Birth of a New Era
Sigalas’s journey began humbly in 1991, in the corner of his family’s traditional kanava (wine cellar) in the village of Baxedes, Oia. By 1998, he had officially founded Domaine Sigalas.
At a time when bulk wine was the norm, Paris saw something completely different in the volcanic “aspa” soils of the island. He recognized that the indigenous Assyrtiko grape—with its razor-sharp acidity, intense saline minerality, and incredible density—had the pedigree to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the great white Burgundies and Rieslings of the world. He just needed to treat it with the respect it deserved. By modernizing vinification, he captured the grape’s pristine, citrus-driven freshness. Suddenly, the world tasted the true, unmasked brilliance of Santorini.
Pioneering a World-Class Vision
Paris Sigalas has never been one to rest on his laurels, and his career is defined by a series of bold firsts that continuously pushed the boundaries of Greek wine. He was the first winemaker on the island to realize that Santorini wasn’t just one uniform terroir. By choosing to vinify plots separately, he began exploring the distinct microclimates of different areas. This vision culminated in his legendary “7 Villages” series and single-vineyard masterpieces like Kavalieros, ultimately proving the profound site-specificity of the island.
Beyond terroir mapping, he fundamentally changed how Assyrtiko could be aged. While the grape’s high acidity makes it incredibly crisp in its youth, Paris knew it also possessed the structural backbone to handle oak. He pioneered barrel-fermented and barrel-aged Assyrtiko, seamlessly marrying the grape’s volcanic salinity with honeyed, textural complexity, and proving its immense aging potential to collectors and critics alike.
His foresight wasn’t limited to white wines, either. While the rest of the wine world was solely focused on Assyrtiko, Paris turned his attention to a rare, nearly extinct indigenous red grape called Mavrotragano. Recognizing its hidden potential, he championed its revival, crafting deep, complex, and age-worthy reds that proved Santorini’s volcanic soils could produce world-class red wines as well.
Perhaps his most enduring contribution, however, is his fierce advocacy for the vineyards themselves. Paris has been a tireless defender of Santorini’s ancient, phylloxera-free vines. These historic vines are constantly threatened by unchecked real estate development. Paris has served as a vocal guardian, fighting to preserve this living viticultural museum for future generations.
Returning to the Roots: The Oeno P Chapter
When Paris sold his eponymous estate a few years ago, the wine world assumed he would finally enjoy a quiet retirement overlooking the caldera. They were wrong.
Driven by the belief that the Santorini vineyard still has much to reveal, he returned to his family’s original seaside kanava in Baxedes to launch a boutique, highly personal project: Oeno P.
Oeno P is Paris Sigalas distilled to his purest essence. With production strictly limited, he has returned to traditional, low-intervention methods paired with modern precision. Here, he is fermenting and aging wines in large-volume amphorae to build texture without the flavor imprint of oak. Wines like Tria Ampelia (crafted from three 60+ year-old vineyards) and Akulumbo (a rich, late-harvest Assyrtiko aged for 24 months) are masterpieces of elegance, finesse, and raw volcanic power.
A Legacy Poured into the Glass
Today, you can find Santorini Assyrtiko on the wine lists of Michelin-starred restaurants from New York to Tokyo. It is a certified darling of the sommelier world.
That global triumph simply does not happen without Paris Sigalas. He taught the world to taste the wind, the sea salt, and the volcanic ash of the Aegean in a wine glass. He isn’t just a winemaker; he is the architect who built the modern era of Greek wine.
