What does retsina wine taste like?
The flavor of retsina, a wine infused with the resin of Aleppo pine trees, has often been likened to turpentine, even by people who like the stuff. Most modern retsinas are made with poor, thin wine.
What is retsina Greek wine?
Retsina is a wine process, really, not a wine—pine resin is added to a base of white wine (typically Roditis or Savatiano), thus creating a pine resin flavor and aromatic. This supposedly mimics ancient traditions, when ancient Greeks sealed wines with resin closures.
What is the resin in retsina?
Aleppo Pine resin
Retsina (Greek: Ρετσίνα) is a Greek white (or rosé) resinated wine, which has been made for at least 2,000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Aleppo Pine resin in ancient times.
What grape is retsina made from?
Retsina can be produced with several of Greece’s white grapes. Some of the best examples are made with Assyrtiko grapes as their base, which is what we found in the Kechris “The Tear of the Pine” wines. These wines had the structure to age over 8 years and aged wines became more round, lush and seemingly sweeter.
How do you drink retsina?
Retsina is served cold and goes very well with fish, seafood, cheese and appetizers (or mezedes, as they call them in Greece). It comes in a bottle of 500 ml and unlike the draft homemade wine, we have never seen draft retsina in a taverna but it doesn`t mean you can`t find such.
Should retsina be chilled?
Retsina has an alcohol content of 12 to 12.5 percent and is best served chilled at 10C.
What is the added ingredient in retsina?
Retsina is produced by the addition of the natural resin extracted from pinus halepensis (commonly known as Aleppo Pine) during fermentation of white and, in rare cases, of rosé wines. Having left only its aroma in the wine, the resin is then removed.
Does Greece make good wine?
Greece has instead turned itself into one of the most exciting wine producing countries in the world, choc-a-block with interesting indigenous grape varieties and utterly delicious wines.
Is retsina a red wine?
Retsina wines are produced in white, rosé and red versions. The most common form is the white retsina, which is mostly made from the Savatiano grape variety and, in small quantities, from the Roditis variety or, on Samos, from Moschato Aspro (Muscat Blanc).
How do you drink retsina wine?
Only whites and rosés are used to make retsina, as red wines have a pungent flavor and mouthfeel all their own. The wine should be served extremely cold, and in wide, open glasses. Lipped glasses will tend to trap the resinous aroma, rather than dissipating it like a wide mouthed glass will.
Is retsina a dry wine?
Retsina is a Greek white (or rosé) resinated wine, which has been made for at least 2,000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Aleppo Pine resin in ancient times.
What is the most popular wine in Greece?
Top 5 Greek Wines
- LIMNIONA FROM THESSALY.
- SANTORINI ASSYRTIKO.
- NAOUSSA XINOMAVRO. Greece’s world-class grape.
- NEMEA AGIORGITIKO. An indigenous Greek version of Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon.
- PELOPONNESE MOSCHOFILERO. If you like good-quality Pinot Grigio, this local Greek grape’s for you.