Drive past any vineyard on Santorini and you won't see the neat vertical rows familiar from most wine regions. Instead, vines are trained low to the ground in a coiled, basket-like shape known locally as kouloura. It's one of the more distinctive sights on the island, and it exists for entirely practical reasons.
Wind and water, not tradition for its own sake
Santorini is exposed to strong, near-constant wind, and gets very little rainfall. Training vines low and coiled protects the fruit inside the "basket" from wind damage and from the sun's most intense hours, while the shape also helps trap what little moisture is available near the plant. It's a growing method shaped entirely by the island's harsh, dry, windy conditions rather than aesthetics.
Why it makes harvesting harder
Because the grapes sit low and enclosed rather than on an open trellis, harvesting Assyrtiko on Santorini is almost entirely manual and considerably more labour-intensive than machine-harvested vineyards elsewhere — part of why the island's wine, despite Greece's relatively affordable reputation, tends to sit at a higher price point.
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