Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Much modern wine culture derives from the practices of the ancient Greeks. While the exact arrival of wine in Greek territory is unknown, it was certainly known to both the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. Many of the grapes grown in modern Greece are grown there exclusively and are similar or identical to varieties grown in ancient times. Indeed, the most popular modern Greek variety, retsina, a strongly aromatic white wine, is believed to be a carryover from when wine jugs were lined with tree resin, which imparted a distinct flavor to the wine.

Evidence from archaeological sites in Greece, in the form of 6,500 year-old grape remnants, represents the earliest known appearance of wine production in Europe. The "feast of the wine" (me-tu-wo ne-wo) was a festival in Mycenaean Greece celebrating the "month of the new wine". Several ancient sources, such as the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, describe the ancient Greek method of using partly dehydrated gypsum before fermentation, and some type of lime after fermentation, to reduce acidity. The Greek writer Theophrastus provides the oldest known description of this aspect of Greek wine making.

Dionysus, the Greek god of revelry and wine and frequently referred to in the works of Homer and Aesop, was sometimes given the epithet Acratophorus, by which he was designated as the giver of unmixed wine. Dionysus was also known as Bacchus and the frenzy he induces, bakcheia. In Homeric mythology wine is usually served in "mixing bowls" it was not traditionally consumed in an undiluted state and was referred to as "Juice of the Gods". Homer frequently refers to the "wine-dark sea" under the intensely blue Greek sky, the Aegean sea as seen from aboard a boat can appear a deep purple.

The earliest reference to a named wine is by the lyrical poet Alkman (7th century BC), who praises "DÃ©nthis", a wine from the western foothills of Mount Taygetus in Messenia, as "anthosmÃas" ("smelling of flowers"). Aristotle mentions Lemnian wine, which is probably the same as the modern-day LemniÃ³ varietal, a red wine with a bouquet of oregano and thyme. If so, this makes LemniÃ³ the oldest known varietal still in cultivation.

Greek wine was widely known and exported throughout the Mediterranean basin, as amphorae with Greek styling and art have been found throughout the area, and the Greeks had possible involvement in the first appearance of wine in ancient Egypt. The Greeks introduced the Vitis vinifera vine and made wine in their numerous colonies in modern-day Italy, Sicily, southern France and Spain.

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