Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by exactly three ghosts, not one, nor two, nor four. For all D’Artagnan’s heroism, Alexandre Dumas did not entitle his novel, The Four Musketeers. Trilogies and trinities are a lot more common, and popular, than tetralogies and quaternities (if that’s the word for them).
In rhetoric, three parallel words, clauses, or lines make up a tricolon, which is a particularly effective type of isocolon (or parallel construction).
I came, I saw, I conquered. —Julius Caesar upon crossing the Rubicon
Government of the people, by the people, for the people. —Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. —The United States Declaration of Independence
Similar to tricolon is hendriatris, which involves the juxtaposition of three words to express a single idea or total concept, for example, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité and ‘wine, women, and song’ (or, nowadays, ‘sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll’).
Winston’s Churchill’s first speech to the House of Commons as prime minister is remembered as Blood, Sweat, and Tears, even though he in fact said, ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat’. As prime minister, Tony Blair did not make his top priority ‘education, education’ but ‘education, education, education’. When asked a question, Joe Biden often responded by making just two points (‘Number 1… Number 2…’), leaving everyone to expect a non-forthcoming third.
Why is three so much more engaging, satisfying, and memorable than one or two or four? ‘Here are my three reasons.’ ‘I’ll give you three examples.’ ‘These are the three lessons I learnt.’
One is a fluke. Two is a coincidence. Four is one too many—to the extent that if you must have four, it might be better to present them as two linked pairs, and maybe add a third pair.
Three, however, is the smallest number required to create a pattern and rhythm—indeed, the rhythm of life, past, present, and future.
Triple goddesses or deities in groups of three are common in world myth: the Holy Trinity, the Tridevi, Hecate, Artemis, the Fates, the Furies, the Graces, the Græae, the Morrígan, the Norns… and, I believe, originally symbolized fate and the passage of time.
As a result, three is deeply embedded in our psyche.
Picture of the caldera, taken upon leaving the island.
Santorini, one of 18 islands in the Cyclades, lies some 70 miles north of Crete, and consists of the remnants of a massive volcanic eruption which, in around 1600 BCE, destroyed the Minoan civilisation on Crete. The centre of the former island collapsed into the volcanic caldera, forming a central ‘lagoon’ which is up to 400m deep (pictured). Older names for Santorini (‘Saint Irene’) include Kalliste (‘the Most Beautiful One’), Strongyle (‘the Circular One’), and Thera—which is still, in fact, its official name.
A kouloura, or basket vine.
To cope with the heat, drought, strong winds, and infertile soils, the vines are widely spaced and trained into an idiosyncratic basket shape [kouloura]. To make the basket, shoots are woven around the canes of previous years in such a way that the buds are on the inside of the basket; after about twenty years, the basket is cut off and another is started from the same plant and root system. The basket traps humidity and protects flowers and fruit from the sun, wind, and sandblasts. The baskets can sit on the ground because the young volcanic soils (consisting principally of black basalt, red basalt, and moisture-retaining tufa) are inhospitable to weeds and insects. There are other training systems on the island, such as Klada, with canes woven into small vertical bracelets. The nearby, and similarly windy, island of Paros has evolved a comparable training system called aplotaries, with the canes left to crawl on the ground. As the soils on Santorini do not contain any clay, they are immune to phylloxera: vines are propagated by layering and root systems can be centuries old. When I asked him the age of a vineyard, Paris Sigalas replied, ‘The vines here have no age, it is impossible to say.’
The vines here have no age, it is impossible to say. —Paris Sigalas
However, yields are diminutive, and all vineyard work must be carried out on hands and knees, making this a very expensive and potentially unsustainable form of viticulture—particularly with land prices under pressure from tourism.
When I visited Santorini in April 2025, the vines were severely stressed by two consecutive years of heat, drought, and even hail, which, until then, had been unknown on the island. Old vines were dying, and could not be replaced because canes were not long enough for layering.
The Greek government urgently needs to intervene to protect, delimit, and classify the vineyards of Santorini, which are a cultural heritage and economic asset on a par with anything in the National Archaeological Museum.
Ari Tselepos & star grower Nikos Pelekanos, who’s known these vines 60 years. But look how many have died in the drought, heat & (previously unheard of) hail of the last two years.
Wine styles
Santorini is renowned for its crisp, dry, and mineral Assyrtiko blends made from Assyrtiko (minimum 75%) completed by Athiri and Aidani. These age-worthy wines, with their notes of citrus and stone fruits, are high in acidity and extract with substantial alcohol and a long, salty finish. Finer examples peak at 5-7 years.
A richer, more exotic style called Nykteri is made from riper grapes, with some skin contact and barrel ageing—although I often prefer the purity of the more standard wines. Each producer on Santorini (and there are only about 20 commercial ones) has their own take on Nykteri.
Most famous, at least historically, is the sweet Vinsanto (‘wine from Santorini’, not to be confused with the Italian Vin Santo) made from Assyrtiko (minimum 50%) completed by Athiri and Aidani. Vinsanto must be aged for at least 24 months in oak. It can be made as a vin doux naturel, from later harvested grapes sun-dried for 12-14 days and fermented to a minimum of 9% alcohol, or as a vin doux (vin de liqueur) to a minimum of 15% alcohol. It is amber in colour with notes of dried citrus peel, apricots, raisins, figs, and sweet spice, together with high acidity and considerable minerality. A recent tasting note on a Santorini vinsanto reads: ‘A wine of contradictions that defies standard terminology… like an old sweet sherry on an acid trip.’
Some red wines are also made on Santorini, from Mandilaria and Mavrotragano—but, as on Lanzarote (that other very volcanic island), they struggle to match the world-class whites. Similarly, Athiri and Aidani can rarely, on their own, stand up to an Assyrtiko, which they serve to round and tame.
Assyrtiko is one of my favourite white grapes, right up there with Riesling. According to Leto Paraskevopoulou, the winemaker at Gaia, their Santorini Assyrtiko is around seven times saltier than their Nemea Assyrtiko. There is debate as to whether this saltiness is better accounted for by the volcanic soils or by the famous Santorini sea mists, which, according to some, owe to underwater volcanic activity. There is also debate about whether and to what extent these sea mists irrigate the vines, although no one doubts that they temper the harsh climate.
Sitting in the famous Santorini mist with a perfectly tamed bottle of Assyrtiko from star newcomer Vassaltis
Producers and vintages
In 2020, Paris Sigalas, ‘the magician of Assytriko’, sold Sigalas and founded Oeno P, which focuses on amphora micro-cuvées. Other leading producers include Argyros (notable, among others, for their library of vinsantos), Gaia (famous for ageing Assyrtiko reductively under seawater), Hatzidakis (their Aidani and Mavrotragano are the best I tasted on the island), Karamolegos (try their four single vineyard cuvées from the prime growing areas of Pyrgos, Fira, Megalochori, and Akrotiri), Tselepos (their Laoudia is extraordinary), Vassaltis, and the high-tech co-op Santo Wines. Many producers say that Assyrtiko needs to be tamed with, for example, lees and barrel ageing.
Tasting with Paris Sigalas. He was delighted to speak to me in French. With this tasting, we traced the evolution of his thought away from oak and towards clarity of expression.
Mikra Thira is the only winery on Thirasia, the largest island in the Santorini caldera, although Santo Wines also makes an excellent Thirasia cuvée called Thira Kori. The terroir on Thirasia is similar to that of the main island, with even greater exposure to the wind and sea.
Strongest recent vintages on Santorini are: 2022, 19, 18, and 14.
If you are ever on Santorini, make sure to visit Ancient Akrothiri, a Minoan-influenced Cycladic settlement preserved in volcanic ash in around 1600 BCE—reminiscent of Pompeii, but much older.
Those first readers and reviews will be critical to the long term success of the book, so I hope you’ll give it a look.
Now let me tell you what’s in it for you….
Every fool can think and speak, or so they think, but you’ll be far ahead by taking a few tips from the greatest minds that ever lived.
How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero may look like two books in one, one on thinking and another on speaking. It is, in fact, a little more than that, since it also looks at the close but fraught relationship between these two profoundly, pre-eminently human activities.
Thinking, however brilliant it may be, is of little use unless it can be communicated to others in such a way that they will be carried by it. Compared to reason, rhetoric may be cheap and manipulative. But it is a necessary evil if we are to achieve worthwhile aims in the world, or simply counter the destructive tendencies of the modern-day sophists.
Although he had scant regard for sophists and other self-interested bamboozlers, Plato did concede that truth is more persuasive when allied with rhetoric, and that dialectic and rhetoric ought to go hand in hand, since ‘he who would deceive others, and not be deceived, must exactly know the real likenesses and differences of things.’
Do you want to have all the best arguments? Do you want others to buy into them? Do you want to make an even greater impact and difference? … In which case, start reading.
Early editorial reviews have been uniformly positive. Here are some snippets:
A brilliant synthesis of classical philosophy and rhetoric that is urgently needed in this age of misinformation. —KC Finn, USA Today best-selling author
Whether you’re a novice or someone already knee-deep in debate, this is a guide for everyone. Very highly recommended. —Jamie Michele, award-winning author
A surprisingly engaging and relevant look at the wisdom of the ancients. —CR Hurst, author and teacher of writing
I sometimes worry that what I’m trying to do isn’t always apparent to people. What, they might ask, is a psychiatrist doing writing about ancient philosophy and all these other things?
Here are three free resources that might clear it up a bit:
In this interview by Plato’s Academy Centre in Athens, I discuss the bigger picture of my work.
For the release of the Spanish edition, I recorded a little video(in English) introducing The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.
As part of his series on critical thinking, Dr Zack Hassan has made a great video summary of my book, Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking.
As I write this, I’m sitting in the garden bathed in spring sunshine. What a relief it is to have come out of the winter woods! Well, for now at least.
Lanzarote has been described as the ‘Island of a Thousand Volcanoes’ and ‘Land of the Eternal Spring’. It is the easternmost of the seven main Canary Islands, a mere 80 miles from the Sahara, and particularly exposed to Saharan dust storms (calima).
At 845 square kilometres, Lanzarote is half the size of Tenerife, with far fewer inhabitants (160k vs 1m). Unlike Tenerife, it has no high mountain to capture the northeast trade winds (Alisios), which is why it is so much drier—so dry that there are no lakes or rivers. Annual rainfall is around 150mm, often less. Until the 1960s, dromedaries (originally towed from Africa) were used in the vineyard. Eamonn and Laura of Cohombrillo have a mango tree which is stunted like a bonzai; while digging, they discovered its roots more than 100m away. Despite the southerly latitude (29 ° N) and proximity to the Sahara, temperatures are relatively cool, brought down by the Alisios and the Canary Current, which is the descending limb of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Gyre.
Volcanic eruptions in the 1730s covered a quarter of the island, including the best arable land, in lava, and coated the rest in black ash and sand (picón). Desperate farmers dug into the picón in search of fertile soil, creating the island’s pockmarked lunar landscape. But now only the vine could survive without irrigation—and not only survive but thrive.
Vines are planted in the ‘old soil’ at the bottom of a conical pit. These hoyos vary in size according to the terrain: Jable de Tao’s Chupadero vineyard, inside a volcanic cone, includes some that are more than 12m in diameter (pictured). Each hoyo is girded on the northeast aspect by a low wall of interlocking lava stones (zoco). The zoco protects the hoyo from erosion and collapse, and, together with the hoyo, shelters the vine from the Alisios. The hoyo also serves to capture moisture (dew and rain) and funnel it to the vine. Meanwhile, the picón serves as mulch, absorbing and retaining moisture and regulating temperature. This method of dry cultivation, known as enarenado and unique to Lanzarote, is highly labour intensive. All vineyard work, including the maintaining of the hoyos and zocos, must be carried out by hand. Each hoyo has a narrow path, or ‘way in’, to avoid destabilizing the structure.
In Jable de Tao’s Chupadero vineyard
The predominant grape variety on Lanzarote is Malvasia Volcánica, accounting for over half of production. Other varieties include Listán Blanco, Diego, and Moscatel de Alejandría. Planting densities average 300 vines per hectare (cf. up to 10,000 in Burgundy). Because the volcanic sands protect from phylloxera, the vines are ungrafted, and, often, centenarian. Miguel Morales of Tisalaya has 3ha of mostly Diego, which yield a mere 3000 bottles a year. Harvest takes place in late July, and there can be a lot of vintage variation, particularly in harvest size—with, for example, 2024 being only half the size of 2023.
The island counts around 30 commercial wineries, many very small. Most buy grapes from a much larger number of small growers. The average age of a small grower is around 70, sparking concerns for the future. The typical wine is a dry Malvásia blend. Clarete is a field blend of white and black varieties. The principal black variety is Listán Negro, although Lanzarote reds struggle to match the best of Tenerife.
Favourite producers include Jable de Tao, Cohombrillo, David Fernandez, Tisalaya, and Titerok-Akaet. El Grifo is the oldest winery in the Canaries and one of the oldest in Spain. When I visited El Grifo, two wines stood out: the only winter harvest wine in the Northern hemisphere, and a historical Canary wine from the legendary 1881 vintage!
Lanzarote wines may appear to be expensive, but are in fact very cheap—especially with such a story. They are never poor, and some of the whites are among the best in the world.
There is much more to mental health than the mere absence of mental disorder. Today, I write about all the things that I was never taught. Click here to find out more.
You must be logged in to post a comment.