Kos Wine Tour

A Kos wine tour takes visitors to the vineyards and wineries of Kos for tastings of local wines with island food. It is one of the tours in Greece on Greece VIP.

This post covers what a Kos wine tour includes, where it starts and the wineries it visits. It also covers the grapes, the wine history of the island and the food served with the wine. Soil and climate, the best season and common questions come last.

Each section ends with a Kos wine tour or a nearby island tour that can be booked online.

What does a Kos wine tour include?

A Kos wine tour includes cellar visits, wine tastings and local food. Listings sell tours of two wineries with transport, single estate tastings, olive oil farm visits and village tours. Tastings pour three to five wines per stop.

One Kos wine tour starts at an organic estate and pours three wines. Its second winery pours three or four wines with local products. Each group is limited to 15 people. A second two-winery listing adds wine pairing.

One Asfendiou estate serves four wines, each paired with products from Kos and the Dodecanese. Its tasting is wheelchair accessible. A Kefalos tasting adds cheeses, cold cuts, jam, tomato, cucumber and breadsticks.

An olive oil farm tasting uses blue glasses and the official method. A Greek meal follows at the family taverna next door. Every guest leaves with a bottle of olive oil.

• Village tour: A small group version adds Greek lunch.
• Town tasting: A port hotel pours five wines.
• Size: Kefalos and hotel tastings cap groups at 10.

A private Kos wine tour pours five wines, then moves to a Kos Town tavern.

Where does a Kos wine tour start?

A Kos wine tour starts with a pickup near the guest’s hotel. One listing for two wineries collects guests in Kos Town, Agios Fokas, Tigaki and Marmari. Tastings sold as tickets start at the winery, with no transfer.

The main settlement of Tigaki, on that list, spreads across a small fertile valley. A sunset listing pairs a family winery with Zia and collects from Kos, Marmari or Tigaki.

Wine also features on one of the private island tours of Kos. That Kos wine tour collects guests from Kos Town or hotels and stops at Antimachia, Kefalos and Zia.

Mastichari lies in Irakleides, a municipal unit of 7,467 residents in 2021. The village is the harbour of Antimachia. A ticket-only estate tasting includes entrance, a tour, water and the tasting.

• Meeting point: One listing meets guests near the hotel.
• Hotel gate: Drivers wait at the entrance gate, not reception.
• Notice: Pickup details arrive by email the day before.

Marmari, on both Kos wine tour pickup lists, lies 9 kilometres from the airport.

Which wineries does a Kos wine tour visit?

A Kos wine tour visits family wineries around Asfendiou, Pyli and Kefalos. A small Pyli winery grows its grapes in Asfendiou vineyards. Another Kefalos winery works at Katsoriaris. A Mesaria winery stands at kilometre six of the Kos to Kefalos road.

One Asfendiou estate traces its story to 1979, when a couple settled on Kos. Its first vineyard of 17,000 square metres was planted in 1996, and bottling began in 2003.

One Kos wine tour listing calls a second Asfendiou winery the oldest on the island. Its story began in 1929, when a refugee from Smyrna made sweet wines at Marmaroto.

A Pyli farming family created an organic winery at Linopoti in 2015. A Kefalos family planted its first vineyard at Karydies in 2010. Its Kampos winery covers 300 square metres and reopened after renovation.

• Cellar: The oldest winery spans three levels by the vines.
• Output: That family winery averages 40,000 bottles a year.
• Generations: The Linopoti winery draws on three generations.

From that Asfendiou estate, a Kos wine tour looks across to Pserimos and Kalymnos.

Which grapes does a Kos wine tour taste?

A Kos wine tour tastes wines from the Kos PGI, which covers white, red and rosé. Each colour comes dry, medium-dry or medium-sweet. White wines use five grapes, Athiri and Malagousia among them. Red and rosé use seven, including Cinsaut and Tempranillo.

PGI vines on Kos give no more than 10,000 kilos of grapes per hectare. A Kos wine tour pours white with at least 11% alcohol. Rosé needs 11.5% and red needs 12.5%.

Vine studies trace Grenache Rouge to Aragon in northern Spain. Its vines ripen late, weeks after Cabernet Sauvignon, and suit dry, windy Mediterranean weather. Its high sugar lets wines reach 15% alcohol.

Malagousia, poured on a Kos wine tour, was virtually extinct until the 1970s. Professor Vassilis Logothetis rediscovered it in Nafpaktia. Growers train PGI vines in rows, pruning Royat or Guyot by variety.

• Sugar: Medium-sweet styles hold 12.5 to 45 grams per litre.
• Cellar: White and rosé ferment at up to 20 °C.
• Yield: Red reaches 80 hectolitres per hectare; white and rosé, 75.

Greek wine labels can list Athiri, a PGI white, under the synonym “Rhodes”.

What history lines a Kos wine tour?

A Kos wine tour follows a past that ancient Kos coins record with grape bunches. Koan amphorae have been found from the Black Sea across the Mediterranean. The municipal emblem of Kos joins a grape bunch and a snake.

A Kos wine tour recalls Cato’s recipe, which takes sea water far from shore seventy days before vintage. Ten quadrantals of it then go into a jar of fifty, packed with grapes.

Pliny noted that Cato’s Italian Coan wine sat four years in the sun. The Byzantine Geoponica gives another recipe: boil three parts must with one of sea water to two thirds.

Under Italian rule, a winery opened on Kos in 1930, supplied by farmers. A wine and grape cooperative ran from 1949 until 1996. Of the Dodecanese, only Kos and Rhodes export wine abroad.

• Pliny: Sea water in white must made a wine called leucocoum.
• Herbs: Thyme, mint, anise or myrrh varied wine by place.
• Knights: A 1449 document records Koan wine exports to Halicarnassus.

Written sources credit ancient Kos with special methods for easily digested, sought-after wines.

What food pairs with a Kos wine tour?

A Kos wine tour pairs its glasses with krasotyri, a PGI cheese since 2018. Its texture is nearly buttery, with vinegary aromas. It also suits watermelon, melon, grapes and wheat bread. Tavernas on the island serve it as a treat.

Krasotyri on a Kos wine tour rests at least one day in brine. It then ripens at least a month in wine lees. Each kilo takes over four kilos of goat and sheep milk.

The cheese served on a Kos wine tour takes its combed, grooved shape from reed baskets called vourla. Inside, it stays white. Its lees must come from approved Kos grapes and local winemakers.

Krasotyri also fills katina, a pie with onions and eggs made mainly around 15 August. Evreiko is an omelette with tomato pieces and onions. More island dishes turn up on food tours on Kos.

• Milk: Only Kos-raised sheep and goats supply it.
• Olives: Chamades are ripe olives salted right after picking.
• Desserts: One tasting adds coffee, tea and local desserts.

Locals grate krasotyri over strapatsada, a scramble of eggs, tomato and onions.

How do soil and climate shape a Kos wine tour?

A Kos wine tour visits vineyards above 20 m, the lowest height for Kos PGI wine. The PGI file logs 2,990 to 3,000 sunshine hours a year. Land and sea breezes keep the vineyards cool. Day-night gaps in summer deepen red grape colour.

Kos took its present shape when its middle block rose above the sea in the Pleistocene. That uplift joined two older islands, Kefalos and Dikaios, now crossed by jeep safaris on Kos.

A Kos wine tour near Kefalos crosses old lake sandstones under volcanic layers. The Kos Plateau Tuff covers about two-thirds of the island. In central Kos, it reaches 30 to 40 m thick.

The PGI file calls the soils light, sloping sandy loam and sandy clay loam. The main vineyard belt sits near 300 m. One Asfendiou plot lies at 105 m on well-drained clay.

• February: The Kos station logged 198 mm of rain this year.
• September: Highs averaged 27.8°C this year, with 5.8 mm of rain.
• Wind: Northwest winds led from June to September this year.

Sunshine and wind set the line of vine rows, so grapes avoid overripening.

When is the best season for a Kos wine tour?

A Kos wine tour in August or early September can meet the harvest. One Asfendiou estate picks by hand from early August to mid-September, always in the morning. Reviews on one listing date from June to October this year.

A Kos wine tour in the first week of August can join the Mastichari wine festival. Wine is served with local food, traditional music and dancing. Kefalos adds a fish festival in early August.

Kos gets 14 hours 39 minutes of daylight on 1 July. By 31 July, that falls to 14 hours 3 minutes. Last year, the Kos station peaked at 38.3°C on 23 July.

Kos airport handled 22,455 passengers in January this year, all on domestic flights. March brought 24,691, up 11.3 percent on the same month last year. December last year logged 24,489 passengers.

• Noon sun: On 1 July, it climbs 76 degrees high.
• July peak: This year’s July top at the station was 35.2°C.
• Weather: The same listing runs in any weather.

August highs at the Kos station averaged 31.5°C this year, the warmest month yet.

What do travelers ask about a Kos wine tour?

A Kos wine tour follows Greek law, which bans selling or offering alcohol to minors. American flight rules ban drinking alcohol on board unless the airline serves it. In America, the first state of arrival sets the alcohol allowance.

What is the minimum age for a Kos wine tour?

Kos tasting listings bar guests under 18, and one winery tour excludes pregnant women. Sellers must check age with a paper or digital ID before serving alcohol.

What drink-driving rules follow a Kos wine tour?

Greece sets a 0.2 g/l limit for novice, professional, moped and motorcycle drivers. From 0.8 g/l, any driver faces nine penalty points and a 90-day licence loss.

Can bottles from a Kos wine tour fly home?

American rules put no limit on checked drinks of 24 percent alcohol or less. Stronger drinks up to 70 percent are capped at 5 litres per passenger.

What to bring on a Kos wine tour?

One private listing asks for a passport or ID card, sunglasses and comfortable clothes. A tour mixing aloe farm, winery and olive oil stops adds a charged smartphone.

Which buses serve a Kos wine tour?

Island buses leave the main station behind the Old Town, a 10-minute walk from the harbour. Riders buy single tickets on board. The Zia and Pyli lines skip Sundays.