Venetsanos Winery

Most of Santorini's wineries sit among the vineyards on the gentle eastern slopes. Venetsanos is different: it clings to the top of the caldera cliff just outside Megalochori, above the port of Athinios, with the whole flooded crater spread out below. It was built in the late 1940s by the winemaker Giorgos Venetsanos as the island's first industrial winery, and the design was ingenious for its time. The building steps down the cliff in levels, so that grapes arrived at the top and the must and wine flowed down from one level to the next by gravity, with no need for pumps. In an age when most island wine was still made in small canavas, it was a modern operation, and the wine was shipped out from the harbour below. After decades of decline the winery was restored by the family and reopened to visitors, and today it combines a working winery with one of the most dramatic tasting terraces in the Cyclades. You sit on the edge of the cliff with a flight of wines made from indigenous grapes: crisp Assyrtiko-based whites, the barrel-aged Nykteri, a rose, and the sweet wines made from sun-dried grapes, served with local cheese, tomato paste, olives and rusks. A short tour shows the old levels of the gravity winery carved into the rock. The view is the reason many people come, and it is spectacular at sunset, when the light falls behind Thirasia and the cliffs turn red and gold. That also means sunset slots sell out first in summer. It is a calmer, more personal experience than the big cooperative winery at Santo, and an easy add-on to an afternoon in Megalochori.

Booking and seasons: tastings are booked through the winery's own website, where you choose a date, a time slot and a tasting package. Packages differ mainly in the number of wines and the size of the food platter. In bad weather the tasting moves indoors. The winery offers a reduced programme in the shoulder months, and its own booking system has listed tastings into November, but like most caldera-edge businesses it runs a seasonal calendar and may close or open only on some days in deep winter, so check availability before you plan a trip around it. For a sunset slot in July or August, book as soon as your dates are fixed.

Getting there: Venetsanos is on the main road between Fira and the south of the island, near the turn-off down to Athinios port and a few minutes from Megalochori. Buses towards Perissa and Akrotiri pass nearby, and a taxi from Fira is quick. If you are driving, remember that tasting and driving do not mix on Santorini's narrow roads; many visitors combine Venetsanos with a guided wine tour or simply take a taxi back. On cruise and ferry days the port road below can be busy, but the winery itself feels removed from it.

How to plan around it: spend the late afternoon wandering the lanes and bell towers of Megalochori, then walk or drive the short distance to the winery for a sunset tasting, and finish with dinner back in the village square. Wine lovers can make a full day of it by starting with the Wine Museum in Vothonas for the history and ending at Venetsanos for the view. If you can only visit one caldera winery, choose Venetsanos for intimacy and the gravity-winery story, or Santo Wines for scale and a larger menu.