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Get Grape Stomper Todd to the Greek!

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On this day in 1924, Greece becomes a republic. Which was somewhat short lived because the Kingdom was restored in 1935.  But then the army said “enough of that,” and staged a coup and installed a military dictator in 1967.  In fact, there were several military coups and coup attempts. Frankly, it was a mess until a democratic republic was finally reintroduced in 1974.

I would have expected better from the country that is know as the “cradle of western civilization”.  Clearly, civility wasn’t always their strong suit in the past 2,000 years.

But they always had wine!  And that’s pretty civilized and it brings us to our Wine Word of the Day: Restina

Restina is a uniquely Greek wine that is known for its strong pine-resin flavor. Yeah, it’s like the air freshener in your car fell into your wine glass (which makes me wonder why you are drinking wine in your car?).  Okay, maybe a better example is if someone put a cap-full of Pine-Sol in your Chardonnay.

I know what you’re thinking: why would anybody want to drink wine that tasted like someone squeezed a Christmas tree into it?  Well, like many foods and beverages, it comes down to history and tradition.

Before the Romans figured out how to build air-tight barrels in the 3rd century, the winemakers of Greece were storing wine in amphorae.  These earthen pottery jugs were not air tight so the wine would go bad quickly.  Thus, the Greeks began coating the inside of the amphora with pine resin.  And, of course, this flavor would infuse into the wine faster than you can say, “Pour me another glass, Dionysus!”

Nowadays, winemakers making restina put small pieces of pine resin in their fermenters for flavor.  So you can see they are simply preserving a traditional flavor that has persisted for over 2 millennium.  But that don’t mean you’re gonna like it.  All recommendations suggest to fully appreciate restina you must go to Greece and drink it with local, traditional, Greek foods.

So, I’m game!  Someone send me an airplane ticket and I’ll be glad to report my findings to you.

For transcripts, links, and more podcasts go to moonstonecellars.com/wwd.  If you have any food pairing suggestions for restina besides turkey, because it’s never wise to ever put a Greek and a Turk in the same room together, please send emails to: wwd@moonstonecellars.com.

And until next time, cheers to you!

Recommendations from Grape Stomper Todd:

	Roland Cracked Green Olives from Greece, 4 lb. 6 oz. Dry Weight in Plastic Tub		Dionysus (Bucchus) Greek Roman God of Wine Statue Real Bronze Powder Cast Statue, 11-inch
	Restina		Grease (Rockin’ Rydell Edition)

Tagged as: amphorae, barrels, dionysus, greece, pine, restina

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