Santorini, officially bearing the ancient Greek name Thira, is one of the Cyclades islands, small islands in the southern Aegean, each with a long history. Thira-Santorini, born of giant volcanic eruptions, has two significant archaeological sites: the prehistoric Akrotiri and the ruins of the ancient city-state Thira on the inaccessible Mesa Vouno.

It is, therefore, natural that many books have been written about the island and significant international conferences have been organized on topics of historical, archaeological, and geophysical interest. In contrast, the bibliography on Santorini as a historical wine region is sparse, with interesting peculiarities both in terms of the formation of the vines and the processing of the grapes in the "kanaves," as the pre-industrial Santorini wineries are called on the island.

These peculiarities were the subject of a study conducted in the late 1960s by the Wine Institute, a research foundation of the then Ministry of Agriculture. The conclusions regarding the wine quality of certain grape varieties cultivated for centuries on the island exceeded all expectations, and thus in 1972, the competent Committee recommended the recognition and protection of the name Santorini as a "Designation of Origin of Superior Quality" for certain types of white wines of the island. With the ministerial decision issued, the terms that the vineyards of the islands Thira and Thirasia must meet, as well as the conditions for processing the grapes, musts, and wines, were defined so that the produced wine could bear the name of the island on the bottle label. [...]

The book is dedicated to the island's vine growers who have kept viticulture alive on this rock of the Aegean through the centuries.

St. K