TIME IN A BOTTLE
InGreece, wine is deeply woven into the fabric of everyday society and is a central component of cultural history.
The country is one of the world’s most ancient viticultural locations. References to consumption and cultivation appear in literature and historical texts as early as the 17th century B.C. Indigenous wine varieties once favored by Hesiod and Aristotle are still produced today.
“Wine has played a central role in everyday Greek life for more than 4,000 years,” says Dr. Haroula Spinthiropoulou, a historian, viticulturist and wine producer. She says evidence of a bustling wine culture and trade on islands like Crete and Santorini, and in the mainland Peloponnese region, traces to the 2nd millennium B.C.
In addition to serving religious and medicinal purposes in ancient times, wine was central to “intellectual gatherings called ‘symposia,’ where they would eat and talk while drinking wine, with Greek sommelier, or , serving them,” says Spinthiropoulou. “The nutritional value of wine was well known by [them], and it became a dominant part of
