Assignment. Read the text about Greek traditional drinks, paying special attention to the peculiarities of Greek ‘Bacchus cult’
According to mythology, the Greeks invented or discovered wine and have produced it in Greece on a large scale for more than 3000 years.
The modern wine industry, though, is still very much in its infancy. Until the 1950s, most Greek wines were sold in bulk and were seldom distributed any farther afield than the nearest town. It wasn’t until industrialisation (and the resulting rapid urban growth) that there was much call for bottled wine. Quality control was unheard of until 1969, when appellation laws were introduced as a precursor to applying for membership of the European Community. Wines have improved significantly since then. The most expensive wines are the Kefallonian Robola de Cephalonie, a superb dry white, and those produced by the Porto Carras estate in Halkidiki. Good wines are produced on Rhodes (famous in Greece for its champagne) and Crete. Other island wines worth sampling are those from Samos (immortalised by Lord Byron), Santorini, Kefallonia and Paros. Aspro is white, mavro is red and kokkinelli is rose.
A holiday in Greece would not be the same without a jar or three of retsina the famous – some might say notorious – resonated wine that is the speciality of Attica and neighbouring areas of central Greece.
Your first taste of retsina may well leave you wondering whether the waiter has mixed up the wine and the pant stripper but stick with it - it’s a taste that’s worth acquiring. Soon you will be savouring the delicate pine aroma, and the initial astringency mellows to become very moreish. Retsina is very refreshing consumed chilled at the end of a hot day when it goes particularly well with tzatziki.
Creeks have been restating wine, both white and rose, for millennia. The ancient Creeks dedicated the pine tree to Dionysos, also the god of wine, and held that land that grew good pine would also grow good wine.
No one seems quite sure how wine and pine first got together. The consensus is that it was an inevitable accident m a country with so much wine and so much pine. The theory that resin entered the wine-making process because the wine was stored in pine barrels does not hold water, since the ancients used clay amphora rather than barrels. It’s more likely that it was through pine implements and vessels used elsewhere in the process. Producers discovered ml wine treated with resin kept for longer, and consumers discovered that they liked it.
Resination was once a fairly haphazard process, achieved by various methods such as adding crushed pine cones to the brew and coating the insides of storage vessels. The amount of resin also varied enormously. One 19th century traveller wrote that he had tasted a wine so impregnated with resin that it almost took the skin from my lips’. His reaction was hardly surprising; he was probably drinking a wine with a resin content no high as 7.5%, common at the time. A more sophisticated product awaits the modern traveller, with a resin content no higher than 1% - as specified by good old EU regulations. That’s still enough to give the wine its trademark astringency and pine aroma.
The bulk of retsina is made from two grape varieties, the white savatiano and the red roditis. These two constitute the vast majority of vine plantings in Attica, central Creece and Evia. Not just any old resin will do; the main source is the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), which produces a resin known for its delicate fragrance.
Retsina is generally cheap and it’s available everywhere. Supermarkets stock retsina in a variety of containers ranging; from 500 ml bottles to 5 l casks and flagons. Kourtaki and Cambas are both very good but the best (and worst) still flows from the barrel in traditional tavernas. Ask for heema, which means ‘loose’.
Don’t expect Greek wines to taste like French wines. The grape varieties grown in Greece are quite different. Some of the most popular and reasonably priced labels include Rotonda, Kambas, Boutari, Calliga and Lac des Roches.
The most expensive wines are the Kefallonian Robola de Cephalonie, a superb dry white, and those produced by the Porto Carras estate in Halkidiki. Good wines are produced on Rhodes (famous in Greece for its champagne) and Crete. Other island wines worth sampling are those from Samos (immortalised by Lord Byron), Santorini, Kefallonia and Paros. Aspro is white, mavro is red and kokkinelli is rose.
Ouzo is the most popular aperitif in Greece. Distilled from grape stems and flavoured with anise, it is similar to the Middle Eastern arak, Turkish raki and French Pernod. Clear and colourless, it turns white when water is added. A 700mL bottle of a popular brand like Ouzo 12, Olympic or Sans Rival costs about 1200 dr in supermarkets. In an ouzeri, a glass costs from 250 to 500 dr. It will be served neat, with a separate glass of water to be used for dilution.
The second-most popular spirit is Greek brandy, which is dominated by the Metaxa label. Metaxa comes in a wide choice of grades, starting with three star - a high-octane product without much finesse. You can pick up a bottle in a supermarket for about 1500 dr. The quality improves as you go through the grades: five star, seven star, VSOP, Golden Age and finally the top-shelf Grand Olympian Reserve (5600 dr). Other reputable brands include Cambas and Votrys. The Cretan speciality is raki, a fiery clear spirit that is served as a greeting (regardless of the time of day).
If you’re travelling off the beaten track, you may come across chipura. Like ouzo, it’s made from grape stems but without the anise. It’s an acquired taste, much like Irish poteen - and packing a similar punch. You’ll most likely encounter chipura in village kafeneia or private homes.