I-Heart-Mykonos-tank-top.jpg
Greek-flag-socks.jpg
Santorini-luggage-tag.jpg
save-water-drink-ouzo-t-shirt.jpg

Greek Retsina

Greek retsina is a dry white wine made and drunk all over Greece with a distinctive pine and resin flavour that people usually either love or hate.

Kourtaki Retsina

For us, when we visit Greece, our first meal is very often kalamari (squid) and a bottle of retsina, perhaps preceded by an ouzo and some meze. It's the very taste of Greece on a plate and in a glass. It tells us we're back in our beloved Greece at last.  If retsina is an acquired taste, then we acquired it long ago. 

What is Greek Retsina?

Retsina is a dry white wine that has been in contact with pine resin to give it its unique flavour. The flavour of retsina is hard to describe, though once you taste it you never forget it. People who don't like it compare it to turpentine, which we obviously think is unfair. Perhaps they've just had some bad retsinas, for as with any wine the quality varies.

It's crisp, a little lemony, and even though it's dry there can be a touch of sweetness to it. The overpowering taste is of course the pine resin, however.  Imagine walking through a pine forest on a hot summer day and being able to capture that aroma in a bottle. To us, that is the essence of retsina.

Bottles of retsina

Which Greek Retsina to Choose?

Of course there is more than one type of retsina and flavors vary, depending on the process and the grape varieties. One name you see throughout the country is Kourtaki, though there are other best-selling brands including Malamatina and Ampelicious.

Many of the bigger and better winemakers like Gai'a started including a retsina in their line-ups, after a surge in its popularity a few years ago. If you find a bottle of Ritinitis Nobilis from Gai'a on offer anywhere, do try it. These quality retsinas tend to be lighter than the more commercial brands, concentrating more on the wine, and on the citrus taste rather than on being too resiny.

What we like to do is ask if the taverna or restaurant has any local retsinas, so we can try some we're unlikely to find anywhere else. You don't usually get draft retsina in the way you get house wines, made by the taverna-owner, as unless you know what you're doing it's easy to ruin a good wine by adding too much resin flavour to it.

Pouring a glass of retsina

Cheap Greek Retsina

Retsina traditionally comes in a 50cl bottle with a screwtop cap on it, though some of the more upscale brands use a conventional 70cl bottle with a cork or plastic stopper. It's one of the cheapest bottled Greek wines that there is, so it's very popular with students and those on a budget. Some people like to mix it with soft drinks to make a kind of retsina spritzer, and to make the retsina last longer. You can also mix it with colas, if you like, though we prefer our retsinas straight.

For a long time it was seen as the poor man's drink, which is one reason it'd had such a poor reputation in the past, but with the 21st-century renaissance in Greek winemaking, people have come to realise that retsina can be made well.

Bottle and glass of retsina

Retsina Rosé

The vast majority of the retsina made in Greece is white, but there are a few rosé retsinas around. They're not common so you should definitely snap one up if you see it.

Which Grape is Retsina Made From?

Most retsina is made from the savatiano grape, which is the country's most widely-planted grape. It is drought-resistant, which helps see it through the hot Greek summers, and it makes pretty reliable if not very exciting wine - though it can make good wine, if the winemaker is prepared to put more work in. 

Two other Greek grape varieties, the assyrtiko and the rhoditis, are often blended with savatiano, or sometimes used on their own, to produce yet another retsina variation. On the island of Rhodes, the most common grape is the athiri, so you'll get a slightly different retsina flavour yet again. On Lemnos, the only white grape grown is the muscat of Alexandria, so it's used for retsina as well as regular wine. As the grape is normally used for dessert wines because of its aromatic nature, you'll find retsinas from Lemnos to be more aromatic too.

Malamatina retsina label

What to Eat with Greek Retsina?

Retsina goes well with a large number of dishes. Fresh seafood is an obvious choice, though it will also pair well with meats such as roast chicken and roast lamb, because of the way Greeks like to use a lot of herbs and garlic to add flavour to their roast meat dishes. It goes well with dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) and other Greek starters, like fried sardines and anchovies, or even cheese.

The History of Greek Retsina

So why do the Greeks like wine with a resin taste to it? The tradition goes back over 2,000 years when Greeks stored wine in clay vessels called amphorae, which you can see in almost every archaeological museum in the country. In order to keep the vessels air-tight and keep the wine fresh for longer, Aleppo pine resin plugs were used as they were found to be very effective at keeping the air out. 

Greek AmphoraeAmphorae

The resin flavour penetrated the wine on sea voyages, and the Greek sailors found they developed a liking for the taste. It's thought that the first resinated wines were made in about the 2nd century BC.

Even when wooden barrels became more commonplace and proved ideal for storing and transporting wine, the Greeks continued using the resin to flavour their wine because by then they liked it so much. Today the resin is added during the fermentation period of the grapes.

And just as barrels have been around since the Romans, so too has retsina - and we'll drink to that. Yammas!

Other Greek wine pages

  • Visiting Santorini wineries is a popular activity on this Greek island in the Cyclades, whose volcanic soil provides a distinctive terroir.

    Santorini Wineries

    Visiting Santorini wineries is a popular activity on this Greek island in the Cyclades, whose volcanic soil provides a distinctive terroir.

  • Antonis Maroudas is a Zakynthos winemaker who lives on the 'wine road' and is one of the people who make Zakynthos.

    Zakynthos Winemaker

    Antonis Maroudas is a Zakynthos winemaker who lives on the 'wine road' and is one of the people who make Zakynthos.

  • Greece Travel Secrets visits the Zacharioudakis Winery near Ancient Gortina in southern Crete, and does a vineyard tour arranged by our guide from Go Crete.

    Zacharioudakis Winery

    Greece Travel Secrets visits the Zacharioudakis Winery near Ancient Gortina in southern Crete, and does a vineyard tour arranged by our guide from Go Crete.

  • Greece Travel Secrets tours the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete and learns about Crete grape varieties such as plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana, mandilari and kotsifali.

    Touring the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete

    Greece Travel Secrets tours the Lyrarakis Winery on Crete and learns about Crete grape varieties such as plyto, dafni, vidiano, vilana, mandilari and kotsifali.

  • The Stilianou Winery near Knossos on Crete uses only Cretan grape varieties, with every bottle numbered, and aims for quality rather than quantity.

    Stilianou Winery near Knossos

    The Stilianou Winery near Knossos on Crete uses only Cretan grape varieties, with every bottle numbered, and aims for quality rather than quantity.

  • A visit to the Museum of Samos Wine to learn about the muscat grapes that produce the best dessert wines in the world and also the Greek spirit, Metaxa.

    Museum of Samos Wine

    A visit to the Museum of Samos Wine to learn about the muscat grapes that produce the best dessert wines in the world and also the Greek spirit, Metaxa.

  • We visit and tour the Manousakis Winery on Crete with a wine-tasting and a chance to buy their tsikoudia, sea salt, olive oil and other goodies.

    Manousakis Wine Tasting

    We visit and tour the Manousakis Winery on Crete with a wine-tasting and a chance to buy their tsikoudia, sea salt, olive oil and other goodies.

  • Greek alcoholic drinks include distinctly Greek drinks such as ouzo, Metaxa, retsina, raki, tsikoudia and tsipouro, but also Greek wines and Greek beers.

    Greek Alcoholic Drinks

    Greek alcoholic drinks include distinctly Greek drinks such as ouzo, Metaxa, retsina, raki, tsikoudia and tsipouro, but also Greek wines and Greek beers.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Latest Posts

RSS

  1. Greece Welcomes Parthenon Fragments Returned by the Vatican

    Greece welcomed three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon, which were returned following an intervention by Pope Francis by the Vatican Museums, during a reunification ceremony in Athens. The fragm…

    Read More

  2. PM: Greece to Hold General Elections on May 21

    Greeks will be going to the polls on May 21 after the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced the news on Tuesday.

    Read More

  3. Transavia to Fly Direct to Kefalonia from Paris in Summer 2023

    Low-cost Dutch airline Transavia, part of the Air France-KLM group, this summer will operate direct flights between Paris and the Greek island of Kefalonia two times per week, according to the Greek N…

    Read More

  4. Greece Among Europe’s Top 10 Most Desired Destinations for Easter

    Greece is among the 10 most searched for destinations in Europe, according to travel intelligence provider ForwardKeys, as intra-European air seat capacity is set to recoup pre-pandemic levels this Ea…

    Read More

  5. Elefsina’s Archaeological Museum Reopens After Refurbishment

    The Archaeological Museum of Elefsina, one of the first archaeological museums in Greece, has reopened its doors to the public after completing maintenance and improvement works. The upgrade focused o…

    Read More

  6. Athens’ Iconic Lykavittos Theater to Reopen in Fall

    The historic Lykavittos open-air theater atop Lycabettus Hill in central Athens, will be reopening to the public following a complete revamp, announced Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis this week. The po…

    Read More

  7. Passengers Rank Thessaloniki ‘Makedonia’ Airport Among Best in Europe

    Thessaloniki “Makedonia” Airport has been named one of the top in Europe at the 2022 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards by the Airports Council International (ACI) World and travel technology compan…

    Read More

  8. Greece on Top 20 List of Best Countries for Entrepreneurs and Startups

    Greece is among the top 20 countries for entrepreneurs and startups, according to a recent study conducted by Compare the Market, a UK-based insurance comparison website.

    Read More

  9. Travelers from Poland Already Booking Greek Summer Holidays

    Demand from Poland is growing with 30 percent of Polish travelers having already booked their holidays to Greece, according to feedback collected by the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) duri…

    Read More

  10. Europe’s Highest Growth in February Airbnb Demand was in Greece

    Demand for Airbnb-style rentals in Greece was the strongest in Europe last month despite historically being the least busy period of the year, marking a 60 percent increase compared to 2022, said anal…

    Read More