In my last post I said we would visit the Gerovassiliou
winery – and so we shall. But first we’ll take a Dionysian detour, a promenade
into the past to learn about the history of wine in Greece.
Wine has held a dear
and dominant place in Greek culture for over 4,000 years as many archaeological
finds attest to. In Ancient Greece the importance of Dionysos - one of the most worshipped gods, the god of wine - tells
us much about the significance of wine in the daily life of the people. Dionysos,
the son of Zeus and Semeli, was the only god to have a mortal mother. He is said
to have been the youngest and the last to be accepted into the Olympian godly
group. He was also known as Vakhos, the name adopted by the Romans as Bacchus.
Some say his origins lay in Thrace where he was worshipped as the god of
fertility with ‘unseemly’ ceremonies of debauchery.
As his worship spread,
he became more associated with wine and wine-making. Certainly, by the 6th
century B.C. he was worshipped throughout Greece. Participants in his mysteries
enjoyed wine, music and dance – consequently enjoying freedom from fear, care
and restraint. The development of Greek theatre is also attributed to him
in that the use of masks is said to have derived from the ancient Dionysian cult and mysteries. A great celebration, the Dionysia, was held in
Athens every March to welcome the arrival of spring …. and to sample the new
season’s wine.
We can see, then, how this deity was seen to enrich the lives
of ordinary people as well as inspire actors, artists and philosophers. Intellectual
gatherings were arranged where thinkers would eat, drink and discuss prearranged
philosophical issues. These gatherings were called ‘symposia’, from syn:
together and posis: drinking. Our
adjective ‘potable’ i.e. drinkable, claims
the same lexical root.
But we no longer have the frenzy of the previous Thracian
celebrations – moderation was the key. While the Greeks quaffed their wine for
philosophical inspiration and clarity of thought, it always had water added.
And here’s another item of semantic interest: what they drank was kekramenos oinos – diluted wine – served
from a kratir, the vessel where the krasi
(first syllable stress) tou oinou,
the mixing of the wine, took place. The word krasi, now with final syllable stress, is, as any tourist worth his
salt knows, the Modern Greek word for wine.
Just imagine if we could tune into the conversation of these
relaxed, reclining figures!
It is in Crete that
the earliest signs of wine production have been discovered, dating back to the
middle of the 3rd millennium B.C.. Items brought to light include
clay wine presses, wine cups, amphorae
– the two-handled vessel from amphi : on both sides and phoreus : a bearer – and even grape
seeds. Among the very interesting finds at King Minos’ palace of Knossos were the amazingly well-preserved
wine containers.
In the Peloponnese, excavations
from the Mycenaean civilization,
from 1600-1100 B.C., have uncovered gold and silver goblets, evidence of a
sophisticated, wine-loving culture. Among these finds was the gold cup of Nestor
mentioned in Homer’s Iliad.
Homer, too, referred to the amphorae, tall clay pots with pointed
bases, which Greeks traded with throughout their known world. The design of
these pots meant they could be efficiently stacked in large quantities and used
as ballast on their trading ships. Their design features can also help us
ascertain where the wine-growing areas were: the islands of Chios, Crete,
Lesvos, Rhodes, as well as Macedonia and Thrace on the mainland.
Below you can see some
shell-encrusted amphorae reclaimed from shipwrecks from the sea-bed. Seals and
symbols on these pots can tell us of the time and place of wine production, as
well as of the maker or merchant.
The Greeks carried their wine-making skills to their colonies
In Sicily and Italy around the 8th century B.C. In the 1st
century B.C., Cretan viticulture was at a peak and amphorae from there have
been found in France, Switzerland and Italy.
During the Byzantine
era, Greek wine-making continued. Though Orthodox Christianity forbade the
worship of Dionysos, the use of wine in religious ceremonies continued just as
it had in the past. Constantinople, the
capital of the Byzantine Greeks, was known as ‘Winbourg’: the city of wine.
The fine design and elaborate craftsmanship of these
containers indicate how important sharing wine was in society. The container on
the right greatly reminds me of the Celtic
quaich, the shallow drinking cup, or the ‘cup of kindness’ mentioned in the
New Year anthem, “Auld Lang Syne’.
The fall of the empire saw a decline in wine trading. During the
four-hundred-year period of occupation, the Turks discouraged wine-making and
consumption, and the high taxes they levied on it were all instrumental in wine-making
skills becoming less the domain of local farmers and more the preserve of the monasteries.
At the end of the 19th century, in 1898, an
outbreak of phylloxera blight
destroyed the vineyards in Macedonia and caused great damage to other wine-growing
areas. The twentieth century saw Greece face other catastrophes: the Balkan Wars, World Wars I and II, the Civil
War and the ensuing major wave of emigration.
These events meant that to a great extent viticulture was abandoned.
But, thankfully, our tale does not end there …….
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