Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Greece, renascent Mediterranean wine producer with a particularly rich history of wine made in classical times from the 7th century bc and on in the Roman era (see Ancient rome). Early Greek colonization led to the vine being taken to all parts of the Mediterranean, thus laying the foundations for viticulture and the whole later development of wine in this area. In modern Greece, the total vineyard area had fallen to around 110,000 ha/275,000 acres by 2013, with only about half producing grapes for wine. drying grapes and table grapes are important to the agricultural economy. About 70% of annual wine production of between 3.5 and 4 million hl (about 100 million gal) is of white wine.