In 1601, an anonymous poet from Zakynthos cited tens of native grape varieties in the few stanzas of a poem known as the poem of grapes. In the two centuries following that poem, many were those who sang the praises of the Greek vineyard including Cretan novelists, Fanariot intellectuals and poets of the diaspora, while Greece’s own national poet, Dionysios Solomos, shortly before writing the Greek national anthem, searched for Verdea wine in Italy. Wine inspired both folk and literary tradition and helped shape the Greek enlightenment that led to the country’s independence.