An Ios wine tasting is a two to three hour guided visit to the island’s small vineyard and cheese dairy inland from Chora, walking the vines and the cellar before four to six wines are poured against the island’s own cheeses, with transport from Chora and Mylopotas included. Plan the rest of the island with Greece Tours.
This page covers the visit in full: where the vineyards and the dairy sit, the grapes and the cheeses, the price bands, the Sikinos winery day by RIB, the cooking class that ends in a tasting, the harvest, who it suits, what else reaches the plate, and how to book an Ios wine tasting.
What is an Ios wine tasting on the terraces inland from Chora?
An Ios wine tasting is a two to three hour guided visit to the island’s small vineyard and cheese dairy inland from Chora, where four to six wines are poured against island cheeses after a walk through the vines and cellar.
The visit opens in the rows rather than at the table. A grower walks the bush vines, explains the schist soil under the terraces, and points out the dry-stone walls that hold the plots against winter runoff. The cellar follows: stainless tanks of 500 to 3,000 litres, a small barrel stack, and the bottling bench. Only after that walk of 25 to 35 minutes does the pouring begin. The Ios wine tasting hosts state this at booking. Every Ios wine tasting works to that rule.
Four to six glasses are poured in sequence, starting with a dry white of 12.5 to 13 percent alcohol and closing on a Mandilaria red or a sun-dried sweet wine. Each glass sits beside a wedge of cheese chosen for it. Transport is folded into the fare, with pickup from Chora’s main square and from the Mylopotas beach road, so a hire car is not part of the arrangement. Guests on an Ios wine tasting meet it in the first half hour.
Groups run from four to fourteen guests. Sessions start at 11:00, 17:00 and 19:00 through the warm months, and the evening slot ends around sunset with the last two glasses on an open terrace. Travellers arriving by ferry into Gialos reach the meeting point in 8 to 12 minutes by bus or taxi, which makes the tasting workable on a first afternoon on Ios. It decides which Ios wine tasting to take.
The format is deliberately small. Producers pour their own bottles, answer questions on yields and fermentation temperatures, and sell at the cellar door afterwards at prices below the beach-bar list. The Ios wine tasting cellar is set up for it.
Where are the vineyards and the Diaseli dairy on Ios?
The vines sit on terraces inland from Chora on the road towards Agia Theodoti, with further plots on the schist slopes above Mylopotas, while the Diaseli dairy stands in the island’s farming interior, 10 to 25 minutes by road from the port at Gialos.
From Gialos the asphalt climbs 1.8 km to Chora in about 6 minutes. Beyond the village the road runs east across open pasture towards Agia Theodoti, 12 km from the port and roughly 22 minutes of driving on a two-lane surface with tight bends above Psathi. The vineyard terraces lie off that road, cut into slopes between 180 and 300 metres of altitude, facing south and southeast away from the strongest wind. Every Ios wine tasting works to that rule. An Ios wine tasting is planned around it.
Diaseli produces the cheeses served at the table: skotyri in cloth, fresh mizithra, and hard wheels aged on wooden shelves. The dairy handles goat and sheep milk from flocks grazing thyme, sage and wild oregano on the interior hills. Visitors watch curd cutting and salting in a room held between 12 and 16 degrees, then taste directly from the maturing shelves. The Ios wine tasting pour is set by it.
The Mylopotas-side plots sit above the beach’s northern end, a 15-minute climb on foot from the sand or 5 minutes by van. From the vineyard edge the view runs to Sikinos, 6.5 km across the channel. Walking between rows takes closed shoes, since the terrace paths carry loose schist. The Ios wine tasting price reflects it.
Most operators collect guests at two points, the bus stop below Ios Chora and the Mylopotas road junction, then drive 10 to 18 minutes inland to the first stop of the afternoon. An Ios wine tasting starts with this settled.
What grapes grow on Ios and what do they taste like?
Ios grows Assyrtiko, Aidani and Monemvasia for whites and Mandilaria for reds, trained low as bush vines against the meltemi. The wines carry citrus, stone fruit and a salt-edged finish, produced from yields of 2,500 to 4,000 kilos per hectare.
Assyrtiko dominates the white plantings. On the island’s schist it delivers lemon peel, green apple and a hard mineral spine, with acidity high enough to hold the wine fresh through a 30-degree August afternoon. Aidani brings white flowers, melon and a softer texture, and growers blend 20 to 40 percent of it into Assyrtiko to round the edges. Monemvasia adds pear and dried herb notes in smaller parcels. An Ios wine tasting is planned around it. This is what an Ios wine tasting delivers at the table.
Mandilaria supplies colour and grip. Fermented on skins for 8 to 12 days, it yields a deep red of 13 to 14 percent alcohol with pomegranate, dried fig and firm tannin. Half a hectare of old Mandilaria vines survives near the Agia Theodoti road, planted before the road was surfaced, with trunks thick enough to show their age at a glance. An Ios wine tasting keeps the glasses for it.
The vines are trained in the kouloura basket shape, a coiled low bush that shelters fruit from the north wind blowing 5 to 7 on the Beaufort scale through July and August. No irrigation reaches the terraces; the roots pull moisture from winter rain stored in the schist. Berry skins thicken as a result, which concentrates flavour and pushes sugar to 12 to 13 Baumé by harvest. An Ios wine tasting fills first on that count in August.
Salinity in the finish comes from sea spray settling on leaves and soil, measurable within 900 metres of the coast on the Mylopotas slopes. The Ios wine tasting timetable is built on it.
What cheese is poured alongside the wine on the island?
Skotyri leads the plate, a peppery aged cheese matured in cloth, followed by fresh mizithra, tangy xinomizithra and hard tsimetos. Thyme honey and barley rusks round the board, with each cheese matched to one of the four to six glasses.
Skotyri is the island signature. Curd is drained, salted, mixed with crushed pepper and wild thyme, then packed into cloth sacks and hung to mature for 60 to 90 days. The texture turns crumbly and slightly grainy, the flavour sharp and herbal. It leads the plate because its salt and pepper set up the Assyrtiko behind it, sharpening the citrus rather than flattening it. This is what an Ios wine tasting delivers at the table. The Ios wine tasting cellar is set up for it.
Mizithra arrives fresh, made from whey the same morning, mild and milky, spread on rusk with a spoon of thyme honey. Xinomizithra is the soured version, left 10 to 15 days to develop acidity, and it takes the Aidani blend well. Tsimetos, the hard wheel aged 6 to 12 months, is shaved thin and paired with Mandilaria, where its salt cuts the tannin. Hosts confirm it by message when an Ios wine tasting is booked.
Boards carry 120 to 180 grams of cheese per guest, enough to stand as a light meal. Barley rusks from the Chora bakery are moistened with island olive oil, then topped with tomato and mizithra in the kritharaki style familiar to anyone who has worked through Ios food in the village tavernas. The Ios wine tasting season turns on this.
Dairies label wheels with milk type and date. Goat milk gives the sharper skotyri, sheep milk the richer tsimetos, and mixed-flock milk lands between the two in both fat content and finish. That detail separates one Ios wine tasting from the next.
What does an Ios wine tasting cost?
An Ios wine tasting with cheese and transport runs 35 to 60 euros per person. The cooking-and-tasting version costs 70 to 110 euros, and the RIB day to the Sikinos winery costs 90 to 140 euros including boat fuel and harbour fees.
The 35 to 60 euro band covers the guided vineyard walk, the cellar visit, four to six pours of 60 to 80 millilitres each, a cheese board of five items, rusks, honey, olive oil, and a closing shot of raki. Round-trip transport from Chora and Mylopotas sits inside the fare. Sessions at the lower end of the band pour four wines; the 55 to 60 euro versions add a barrel sample and a sweet wine. The Ios wine tasting cellar is set up for it. An Ios wine tasting starts with this settled.
The cooking class at 70 to 110 euros adds three to four hours of hands-on work, ingredients for four or five dishes, printed recipe cards, and unlimited house wine at the table. Aprons and knives are supplied. Groups stay under twelve so each guest works a station rather than watching. The Ios wine tasting hosts state this at booking.
The Sikinos crossing at 90 to 140 euros covers the RIB seat, life jacket, the Manalis estate tasting of five wines, a plate of local cheese and tomato, and a swim stop. Lunch at Episkopi adds 15 to 25 euros paid separately at the taverna. Guests on an Ios wine tasting meet it in the first half hour.
Bottles at the cellar door run 12 to 22 euros for whites and 16 to 28 euros for the Mandilaria red. Skotyri sells at 14 to 18 euros per kilo, thyme honey at 12 to 16 euros for 450 grams. Card terminals work at the dairy; the smaller cellar takes cash. It decides which Ios wine tasting to take.
What is the Sikinos winery trip by RIB from Ios?
The Sikinos trip crosses the channel by rigid inflatable in 30 to 40 minutes, climbs to the Manalis estate above Episkopi for a terrace tasting over the sea, and returns with a swim stop, filling seven to eight hours in total.
Departure is from Gialos harbour at 09:30 or 10:00, with a briefing on the pontoon and life jackets issued before boarding. The RIB carries eight to twelve passengers at 22 to 28 knots, running southwest past Tripiti and the small islet of Kardiotissa. Chop builds when the meltemi blows above force 5, and operators cancel or reschedule rather than cross in a swell over 1.5 metres. An Ios wine tasting starts with this settled. The Ios wine tasting timetable is built on it.
Landing at Alopronia, the island’s port, a van covers the 3.5 km climb to the Manalis winery in 9 minutes. The estate sits at 280 metres on terraces beside the Episkopi monument, a Roman mausoleum converted into a Byzantine church. Five wines are poured on the terrace: Assyrtiko, an Aidani blend, a rosé from Mandilaria, the red, and a sun-dried sweet wine served with cheese and tomato. Every Ios wine tasting works to that rule.
The return leaves Alopronia around 16:00 and stops 20 to 30 minutes at a cove on the Ios west coast for swimming in water of 23 to 26 degrees between June and September. Snorkel masks sit in a crate under the bow seats. Anyone comparing this against the standard beach circuits will find it listed separately from the usual Ios boat trips, since it combines a winery visit with the crossing rather than a beach loop. The Ios wine tasting pour is set by it.
Boats hold a minimum of six paying seats to sail. The Ios wine tasting price reflects it.
How does a cooking class with a tasting work in Chora?
A Chora cooking class runs three to four hours in a village kitchen, where six to twelve guests make four or five dishes by hand while island cheese and wine are poured alongside, ending with everyone eating at one table.
Sessions start at 17:00 or 18:00 in a stone house off the Chora footpaths, reached in 4 to 6 minutes on foot from the main square. The host opens with a white poured cold, a plate of skotyri and rusks, then sets the stations. Dishes cover a mizithra-filled pastry, tomato fritters from the island’s small-fruit tomatoes, stuffed vine leaves rolled by hand, a slow-braised goat or chickpea pot, and a honey-and-sesame sweet. The Ios wine tasting timetable is built on it. That detail separates one Ios wine tasting from the next.
Each guest works dough or filling rather than watching a demonstration. Rolling vine leaves takes 25 to 30 minutes for a group of eight. The braise goes into the oven early and rests 90 minutes while the rest of the menu comes together. Wine changes with the dish: Assyrtiko through the cheese and pastry, the Aidani blend with the fritters, Mandilaria with the meat pot. An Ios wine tasting is planned around it.
Recipe cards in English and Greek go out at the end, with quantities in grams and millilitres and notes on substitutions outside Greece. Hosts adjust for vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free requirements when told at booking. Children over eight join the rolling and shaping stages and drink grape juice pressed at the same cellar. An Ios wine tasting keeps the glasses for it.
The class closes at the table between 20:30 and 21:30, which places guests back on the Chora lanes exactly as the bars fill. That timing makes an Ios wine tasting combined with cooking the practical opening act of a long evening. An Ios wine tasting fills first on that count in August.
When is the harvest on Ios and does the season change the visit?
Picking runs through August and early September, and guided visits operate April to October. Spring shows a quiet cellar and green shoots, harvest weeks show crushing and pressing, and the winter closure from November to March leaves only pre-arranged appointments.
Budbreak arrives in late March. By mid-April the shoots stand 20 to 30 centimetres and the terraces are green, with flowering in the third week of May. April and May visits show pruning wood stacked at row ends, tanks empty and scrubbed, and last year’s bottles at their freshest. Temperatures sit at 18 to 22 degrees, and the walk through the vines is comfortable at midday. That detail separates one Ios wine tasting from the next.
Harvest starts with Assyrtiko in the first ten days of August, moves to Aidani and Monemvasia, and finishes with Mandilaria by the second week of September. Picking begins at 06:00 and stops by 10:30 to keep fruit below 20 degrees. Visitors during those weeks watch destemming, pressing and the first fermentation bubbling at 16 to 18 degrees in the tanks, with must offered from the tap. This is what an Ios wine tasting delivers at the table.
October brings settled weather, water at 22 degrees, and the year’s new white in tank rather than bottle. Ferry traffic thins after 20 September, and group sizes drop from twelve to five or six, which turns an Ios wine tasting into something close to a private session at the same fare. Hosts confirm it by message when an Ios wine tasting is booked.
From November the dairy keeps working while the cellar shuts. Producers accept appointments made 5 to 7 days ahead for groups of four or more, with tastings held indoors beside the barrel stack and the vineyard walk cut short by rain and wind. The Ios wine tasting season turns on this.
Who does an Ios wine tasting suit?
An Ios wine tasting suits couples, small groups of friends, and travellers taking a day off the beach and the nightlife. Families with children over eight join the cheese half, and the party crowd books the 19:00 slot before dinner and the bars.
Couples take the 17:00 session, which puts the last two glasses on the terrace as the light drops and returns them to Chora by 19:45. Groups of four to eight friends fill a whole van and receive a private pace, with the grower answering questions on fermentation and cellar temperatures rather than running a fixed script. It decides which Ios wine tasting to take.
Children join for the dairy stop, the honey, the rusks and the grape juice, and operators charge 15 to 20 euros for under-twelves. The vineyard walk covers 400 to 600 metres of uneven terrace path, manageable from age eight upward. Prams do not work on that surface, and infants stay in carriers. The Ios wine tasting cellar is set up for it.
The nightlife crowd treats the evening tasting as a base layer. Five wines across 90 minutes with 150 grams of cheese and rusks sets up a night that starts at 23:00 in the Chora lanes and runs past 04:00. Anyone building a list of things to do in Ios beyond Mylopotas sand and the Chora bars places this alongside the Homer’s tomb walk at Plakotos and the Skarkos Bronze Age settlement. The Ios wine tasting hosts state this at booking.
Solo travellers join scheduled group departures without a supplement. Wheelchair access reaches the cellar and tasting room but not the terraces, and operators state this at booking. Guests on an Ios wine tasting meet it in the first half hour.
What else lands on the plate and in the glass?
Thyme honey, salted capers, sun-dried tomatoes and island-pressed olive oil fill the board beside the cheese, while raki and rakomelo close the session. Bottles and jars sell at the cellar door at 12 to 28 euros.
Thyme honey comes from hives set on the interior hills between Agia Theodoti and Psathi, where thyme flowers from late May through July. The honey crystallises within four months, carries a resinous finish, and sells in 450-gram jars at 12 to 16 euros. Spread on fresh mizithra it turns the mildest cheese on the board into the sweet course. The Ios wine tasting price reflects it.
Capers are gathered from walls and rock faces in May and June, then salted for 20 to 30 days. Buds arrive firm and intensely saline; caper leaves, pickled whole, appear beside them. Sun-dried tomatoes cured on rooftop racks through August concentrate to a chewy, savoury bite that stands up to Mandilaria without collapsing. An Ios wine tasting starts with this settled.
Olive oil pressed on the island runs green and peppery, poured over rusks at the start of the board. Raki closes proceedings at 38 to 42 percent alcohol, served in 30-millilitre glasses straight from a metal jug. Rakomelo, the same spirit warmed with honey, cinnamon and clove, replaces it from October when evening temperatures drop below 18 degrees. Every Ios wine tasting works to that rule.
Purchases at the cellar door carry no markup for tour guests. Whites sell at 12 to 22 euros, Mandilaria at 16 to 28, skotyri at 14 to 18 euros per kilo vacuum-sealed for the ferry. Producers pack bottles in cardboard six-packs sturdy enough for hold luggage from Santorini airport, 40 km southwest. The Ios wine tasting pour is set by it.
How does a tasting fit into a single day on the island?
The late-morning session follows a beach start at Mylopotas, the 17:00 slot lands before the Chora windmill sunset, and the 19:00 one closes before the bars open. Driving times run 6 to 18 minutes, walking times 4 to 15.
A standard structure opens at Mylopotas from 08:30, with the sand quiet and water at 24 degrees through July. Pickup at the beach road at 10:45 puts guests in the vines by 11:05, with the tasting finished at 13:30 and a return drop at Chora square. That leaves the afternoon for Manganari, 12 km south and 25 minutes by road, or a return to the sunbeds. An Ios wine tasting fills first on that count in August.
The afternoon version works better for anyone who spent the previous night out. Pickup at 16:45, cellar walk by 17:10, glasses poured until 19:15, back in Chora at 19:30. The windmill ridge above the village sits 7 minutes on foot from the square, and sunset falls between 20:35 and 20:55 from June to August. The Ios wine tasting timetable is built on it.
The evening slot runs 19:00 to 21:30 and ends with rakomelo. Dinner in the Chora lanes follows within a 5-minute walk, and the first bars fill after 23:00. Scheduling an Ios wine tasting at that hour removes the need for a hire car entirely, since transport returns guests to the village square. An Ios wine tasting is planned around it.
Ferry days work too. Arrivals from Naxos and Santorini dock at Gialos between 10:00 and 12:00, and the port sits 8 minutes below Chora by bus, with departures for the same route running late afternoon. An Ios wine tasting keeps the glasses for it.
How do you book an Ios wine tasting and what do you bring?
Book two to four days ahead in July and August, since departures need a minimum of four guests. Free cancellation stands until 24 hours before. Bring closed shoes, a hat, cash for bottles, and state dietary requirements at booking.
Reservations go through the operator site, the Chora travel desks near the square, or the hotel reception at Mylopotas. Confirmation arrives with a meeting point, a pickup window of 15 minutes, and a phone number for the driver. In June and October a same-day booking made before 14:00 finds space; through the last three weeks of August the 17:00 and 19:00 slots fill 72 hours out. The Ios wine tasting season turns on this.
The four-guest minimum applies per departure, not per party. Groups below that threshold are merged with other bookings or moved to the next available slot, and operators confirm the running of the session by 18:00 the previous evening. Private bookings for two run at a 60 to 90 euro supplement over the standard fare. That detail separates one Ios wine tasting from the next.
Closed shoes matter on the terraces, where loose schist shifts underfoot on the row paths. A brimmed hat and water handle the 32 to 35 degree afternoons of late July. Cash covers cellar-door purchases at the smaller producer, and a light layer suits the 19:00 slot once the north wind picks up after dark. This is what an Ios wine tasting delivers at the table.
Dietary notes entered at booking reach the dairy the same day. Vegetarian boards drop nothing but the cured meat option; lactose-free arrangements replace the cheese sequence with capers, tomatoes, olives and rusks. Drivers on an Ios wine tasting receive non-alcoholic pours and grape must without a change in the fare. Hosts confirm it by message when an Ios wine tasting is booked.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an Ios wine tasting cost?
From 35 to 60 euros per person for the guided cheese and wine tasting with transport, 70 to 110 euros for the version built around a cooking class, and 90 to 140 euros for the RIB day out to the Sikinos winery.
What wine is made on Ios?
Assyrtiko, Aidani and Monemvasia for the whites and Mandilaria for the reds, grown on low bush vines that survive the meltemi, giving dry wines with a salt edge and firm acid.
What cheese is served at an Ios wine tasting?
Skotyri, the island’s peppery aged cheese matured in cloth, alongside mizithra, fresh xinomizithra and the hard tsimetos, served with thyme honey and barley rusks.