Greece

Wine has been made in Greece for longer than almost any other European country. Evidence of mashed up grapes has been found from 4,500 BC, and Greece was a major player in the wine trade from ancient times up to the medieval period.

The Greeks even identified a god of wine, Dinoysus, whom the Romans later called Bacchus. The cult of Dionysus was widespread in the Mediterranean from at least 1,600 BC.

However, Greece does not have the same reputation as France, Italy or Spain when it comes to wine nowadays. Greece does not have an interrupted history of growing quality wine on a commercial scale – when the Ottoman Turks occupied Greece, wine production was at best marginalised and at worst outlawed. 

In addition, the rise of affordable toursim from the 1960s onward introduced the world to retsina, a wine falvoured with pine resin, which did little to improve Greece’s reputation for waultiy wine.

Nevertheless, nowadays, Greece is firmly back on the map in respect of good wine production, although it still has a way to go in persuading the rest of the world. 

The key wine regions for quality are: Nemea, mostly for red wine from the Agiorgitiko grape; Naoussa, for red from Xinomavro; Santorini, for white from Assyrtiko.

Modern Greek winemakers have often cut their teeth in the great wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy and come back to their native country to apply the techniques they learnt there.

Click on the links below to find out more about the regions and their wines.