Greek wine
It is believed that wine was introduced in Greece around 4000 BC and there is evidence, found on artifacts, that it was known to the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.Ancient Greeks considered that wine was a gift from the gods and worshiped Dionysus, a creature with the mind of man and the instincts of a beast, as god of wine. Festivals honoring Dionysus were held during winter months and were celebrated by performing arts and wine drinking. Vineyards, grapes and wine drinking festivities were painted on hundreds of ancient Greek artifacts of clay, marble and metal.During Homer times, wine cultivation was part of Greece's agriculture. It is evident that wine was a drink for old and young Greeks. is difficult for someone to believe, that since the begining of the centuries, these very same hills, around Nemea, have been covered by green vineyrads. The explanation is given by the excellent ecosystem of the region which favours vine varieties unique all over the world. Here, in the Antiquity were the ancient city birthplace of demigods. Nemea today is as much famous for its past as for its unique wines.oday Nemea has created an attractive image, not only among the Greek wine producers, but all over the world. There is actually a new wine factory, the nucleus of the Nemea Wine Producers Cooperative Association. In our Wine Producers Cooperetive Association the quality of the wine is the result of the high respect to the tradition allied to modern methods and to the technological progress reece is the country where the wine making was born.
In the last 20 years Greece has experienced a reborn of the winemaking industry. The typical Retsina and Demestica days and the 2lt bottles production has now become a qualitative selection of VQPRD and Table wines, created by the new generation of wine makers who have put the art of wine making back in the forefront of Greece's recent achievements. As the Olympic Games of 2004 return back to their homeland, this year finds Greece's wine industry to have earned the consumer trust and confidence it deserves and has now become a considerable selection in the buying lists of major suppliers and distributors in the world wine arena.
Tradition says that infant Achilles was given wine with his meals.
One of the products of this land, and one of the elements of our inheritance is wine. It survived through the ages, thanks to the alcohol it contains, and it is put beyond the other products of the Greek land. Believed to have a Divine Presence in it, it has been accompanying the Greeks through History.
Even Ulysses during his quest to return home used wine to gain control over Polyphemus by getting him drunk and blinding him afterwards.Greeks stored and transported wines in airtight, ceramic vessels called amphorae. They also used a labeling system close to the one we have today. The amphorae had various shapes with two handles, and they were used to signify the city that produced and traded the particular wine. The amphorae had an inscription with the year of production and both handles were used to place the wine-makers stamp on one and the local ruler's stamp on the other. Also, the storage in amphorae had its benefits because it allowed them to store wine for long periods thus creating brilliant aged vintage wines.There have been many explanations as to why retsina tastes the way it does. The explanation is because they put pine resin in it to make it taste like that and the reason is because they like the taste. Some people have come up with theories on how this all began. When we were kids we heard (from other kids of course) that during world war two the Greeks put the resin into the wine so the Germans would think it was turpentine and not drink it. That was a romantic theory but not a good one. But according to Vassilis Kourtakis, who makes the most popular of the bottled retsina, the ancient Greeks knew that the air was the enemy of wine and used pine resin to seal the tops of the amphora and even added it to the wine itself. During the early Roman times Greeks introduced grape viticulture to Sicily in south Italy. As time went by and the tradition was handed down from father to son, the methods of wine cultivation improved. They used herbs and spices to preserve and flavor their wines and made them well known to the ancient world. It is not an exaggeration to say that Greece was back then, what France is today, in wines.
Nowadays retsina from the barrel is hit or miss. But if you go to a taverna and it is full of happy Greek people drinking from glasses that are being refilled over and over again from a carafe then chances are the retsina is pretty good. When it's not, mix it with soda water like I do. This also will enable you to drink all night long. One of the things I have noticed is that I can drink a lot of retsina and still not be hung over the next day. My kidneys may hurt like hell but otherwise I feel great, considering. The decline of wine cultivation started during the end of the Byzantine empire and grapevines were virtually vanished during the Ottoman empire. Greeks being under the Ottoman rule for five centuries lost their continuity in tradition of wine cultivation. At that time only a few areas in Greece cultivated wine and it was mostly in regions around monasteries. This fact led to a long period of wine culture with minimal standards of taste and quality.In our days, we stop in 1937 with the creation of the Greek Wine Institute and in the 1960's when modern technology was applied by the Greek wineries to produce a wide variety of fine wines. Legislation helped to create local system of controlled production called Quality Wines Produced In Registered Areas (V.Q.P.R.D.). Today approximately 20% of production is exported and 90% of it is absorbed by EU member countries.
When Greece joined the Common Market back in 1981 its wine legislation inspired by France and implemented by a superbly staffed Ministry of Agriculture was ahead of its time.