Aromatized — Retsina
Greece's ancient resinated wine — white wine infused with Aleppo pine resin for a singular piney aromatic. A true acquired taste, and a great meze partner.
About Retsina
Retsina is the wine world's most polarising aromatised style — Greek white or rosé deliberately flavoured with Aleppo pine resin added during fermentation. The practice descends from antiquity, when resin was used to seal amphorae and coincidentally flavoured the wine inside; Greeks came to prize the taste and preserved it long after the sealing function vanished. Made mostly from the neutral Savatiano and Roditis grapes of Attica, retsina carries an unmistakable pine, turpentine, and green-herb aroma over a crisp, dry base. Industrial versions earned it a rough reputation, but a wave of quality-minded producers now makes precise, gently-resinated bottlings that reveal why the style endures. Served ice-cold, its resinous cut is a superb foil for oily meze, grilled fish, and garlicky Greek cooking. Editorially it is a living link to ancient winemaking and a reminder that flavouring wine with botanicals is far older than Champagne.
Production process
Principal producers
- Kechris
- Gaia Wines (Ritinitis Nobilis)
- Tetramythos
Editorial notes
Serve very cold and pair with oily, herby, garlicky food (meze, grilled sardines) — context transforms it. Seek out modern quality producers over cheap industrial retsina.