The Archaic period

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By the Archaic period, in the 7th century BC, winegrowing has spread throughout the Greek realm since both climate and soil favor it. As the cult of Dionysus continued to gain ground, the Dionysian celebrations gave birth to dramatic poetry, theater, and ancient Greek tragedy. Old winemaking techniques continue to spread and new ones appear such as sun-drying grapes, and adding fragrant plants, herbs, and honey to wine to scent it, together with resin to preserve it. Attica, Thassos, Naxos, and Rhodes are large winegrowing areas. In the Archaic period (700-480 BC), the need to safely transport wine led to the growth of the art of ceramics and the crafting of amphorae which were destined to replace the wine pouches used until that time for sea transport of wine. Pottery blossomed, rendering exquisite examples of different types of wine vessels made specifically for consuming and enjoying wine. During the 6th century BC, Greek wines became popular and were highly acclaimed. Demand for Greek wines would increasingly rise, leading to a burst of quality and commercial activity, especially on the eastern Aegean islands such as Chios and Lesvos. During that same time period, “wine coinage” is minted, with the coins depicting a variety of winegrowing symbols. Laden with amphorae of wine from the Aegean islands and the continental coastline, the Greek seafaring vessels would not only export Greek wines but they would also diffuse the Greek culture whose language, religion, origin, and wine culture was gradually being adopted by the city-states, thus confirming the rule that “wine equals culture”.

The early historic times

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After 1000 BC and following a period of decline (Greece’s so-called “dark ages”), in the early historic times (1050-700 BC), the Geometric period began when Greeks began moving towards the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor. It was there that the first Greek colonies of Ionia were established and where, for the next 3,000 years, winegrowing was the main agricultural engagement and wine the main exported commodity. According to Homer, who lived in the 8th century BC, the quantities of wine traded in the north Aegean between Lemnos, Thrace, and Troy were impressive and the sales of renowned wines such as Ikaria’s Pramnios and Ismarikos (or Maronitikos) hailing from Maronia, Thrace, remained brisk for centuries. But Greek mainland areas produced equally fine wines, such as Viotia, where Hesiod himself engaged in winegrowing of which he wrote in detail.
It was also during the early historic times, in the mid-8th century BC, when the first city-states began to emerge, that  the need to explore the trading opportunities presented by new lands also arose, driving the Greek metropolises to colonization. Greek colonies appeared in the Black Sea and the western Mediterranean, with the settlers bringing to the Mediterranean coastline of western Europe their winegrowing tradition. Apart from Greek wines, the settlers would also bring along their grape varieties, thus establishing an early form of plant colonization.

Prehistoric times

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Wine grape vines are self-sown in Greece, and evidence of their existence can be traced to times even beyond the Ice Age. Vine growing and wine making in Greece are age-old and are among the primordial activities of humankind in prehistoric times (4500-1050 AD). Traces of wild grape vines (vitis vinifera, ssp sylvestris) have been discovered in many parts of the country such as Thrace, Macedonia, Thessalia (Thessaly), Evia, and the Peloponnese, with some of the plants possibly dating back to the Neolithic Age. Domesticated grape vines (vitis vinifera, ssp sativa) have been grown in many regions of the Greek peninsula since the 4th millennium BC.

Archaeological finds of recent years (as published in the “Antiquity Journal”, 2007) at Philippi, eastern Macedonia, corroborate the presence of domesticated grapes in Greece as early as the second half of the 5th millennium BC. The first evidence of vinification at Philippi includes charred pips and trodden grape skins, the products of the pressing of wild as well as domesticated grapes.
In later periods of Neolithic times, winegrowing may have spread to Greece from other countries which are now known to have also engaged in winegrowing in prehistoric times, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt . Some maintain that, from those countries, the seafaring Phoenicians must have brought the vine to Greece, starting with Crete. Others argue that winegrowing activity in Greece originated in the East and thus spread to Thrace first.

During the Bronze Age, in the 2nd millennium BC which followed the Cycladic civilization that flourished in the Aegean, two of the most important civilizations of prehistoric times developed, where wine played a central role both as a tradable commodity and as a foodstuff. In the first one, Crete’s Minoan civilization, which spread to the Aegean islands around Crete, vine and wine were a main cultivation and chief export, respectively. Since then, winegrowing has continued steadily on the island where archaeological excavations have unearthed the world’s oldest wine press and vessels bearing traces of wine. Then flourished the Mycenaean civilization, based in Mycenae, Peloponnese, which dominated in southern Greece and the Mediterranean in the second half of the 2nd millennium, after the devastating eruption of the volcano of Thera (Santorini). It is during this time period (13th century BC) that historians place the Greeks joining forces in their campaign against Troy and Odysseus’ legendary return journey to the home island of Ithaca. Both events became the subject of the Homeric epics.