Wineaux of the Goddess - Greek Edition

This year being the exploration of world wine regions, the monthly meeting of the Wineaux of the Goddess happily discovered that thousands of years of grape cultivation and winemaking experience create delicious, food-friendly, low-cost - and low-alcohol - wines. Because these grapes were all new to us, we did not taste them blind. We started with the white wines in order of vintage, and followed suit with the reds.

The origins of wine-making in Greece go back over 6,500 years, and evidence suggesting wine production confirms that Greece is home to the second oldest known grape wine remnants discovered in the world, and the world’s earliest evidence of crushed grapes. The spread of Greek civilization and their worship of Dionysus, the god of wine, spread Dionysian cults throughout the Mediterranean areas during the period of 1600 BC to the year 1. Hippocrates used wine for medicinal purposes and readily prescribed it. Greek wines and their varieties were well known and traded throughout the Mediterranean. The Ancient Greeks introduced vines such as Vitis vinifera and made wine in their numerous colonies in Italy, Sicily, southern France, and Spain. The Vitis vinifera grape which thrives in temperate climates near coastal areas with mild winters and dry summers adapted well and flourished in the Northern Mediterranean areas.