The recorded history of wine in Ancient Greece begins around the 15th century BC, while viticulture appears to have existed as early as in the Neolithic era, 6,500 years ago.
Vines were being cultivated by 2500 BC on Crete and in mainland Greece too. In the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures of the 2nd millennium BC, on the Greek mainland and on Crete respectively, wine remain an elite drink. It is not listed in ration tablets for slave workers or lower-ranking religious officials. The Greek’s were very good at wine making and so they would trade the wine with their neighbors and now countries like France, Italy, Russia and more have many different wines all because of the people from Ancient Greek times.
Wine was so entrenched in the culture that during the Late Archaic Period (525-480 B.C.), it is thought that up to 60% of the dishes in a typical Athenian home were designed for drinking wine communally. Wine served important religious, social and medical purposes in Greek society. The "feast of the wine" was a festival in Mycenaean Greece celebrating the "month of the new wine. Several festivals were held throughout the year in honor of the God of wine. February's Anthesteria marked the opening of the wine jars from the previous autumn harvest, featuring wine-drinking contests and a procession through Athens carrying wine jars.
The ancients knew full well the value of fine wines and distinguished their production between new young wines for the masses or armies in the field and more mature wines for the connoisseur. All men were able to experience the reduced inhibitions, greater relaxation, and enhanced social interactions (including sexual relations) that accompanied wine drinking.
The Greeks established the first great male drinking clubs, called symposia, in which wealthy men came together to converse and consume wine. At symposia, male citizens would gather for dinner, drinking, conversation, music, and entertainment.
They would engage in jokes and games, recite poetry, and watch professional musicians and dancers. Greek women were allowed to participate only as accessories, as musicians, servers, or prostitutes. Greeks believed that women had a predilection for drunkenness and excess and therefore frowned on female drinking.
According to their custom the Greeks mixed five parts water and two parts wine and sometimes added honey and salt water as flavoring. Getting drunk was looked down upon generally and those that did not mix their wine with water were seen as alcoholics and by that virtue, barbaric.
Wine was almost always diluted, usually with water or snow when the wine was to be served cold. The Greeks believed that only barbarians drank unmixed or undiluted wine and that the Spartan King Cleomenes I was once driven insane after drinking wine this way.
Ancient Greek writers referred to wine as ‘sweet’, ‘dry’ or ‘sour’. There were white wines and black wines. Sour wines were most likely produced with unripe grapes and had heightened acidity. Sweet and dry wines were exactly like wines today made with either white or red wine grapes.
In classical Greece wines were drunk young and most were probably vinegary. To counter the acid taste, a variety of methods were employed. Greeks learned that air speeds up the spoiling process. Amphorae had narrow necks to reduce the contact of wine with air, and they were kept tightly stoppered.
The Greek god of wine probably received wine by amphora an earthenware jug that held the equivalent of about 4 bottles of wine. To drink wine, more than likely, Dionysus used a decorated rhyton, a horn-shaped cup made of horn, bronze, gold or clay. Because air could penetrate earthenware surfaces, the Greeks line their amphorae with resin. This preserved wine for use in commerce.
The medicinal use of wine was frequently studied by the Greeks, including Hippocrates, who did extensive research on the topic. He used wine as a cure for fevers, to ease convalescence and as an antiseptic.
The Athenian doctor Mnesitheos (4th century BC), skilled in treatments with wine, made an observation: “Black wine is the most nutritious, white is the most diuretic and the lightest, claret wine is dry and makes for better digestion”.
Aretaeus of Cappadocia (1st century AD) recommends light wines for heart disease and advises against the richer wines.
History of wines in ancient Greece
