Vino Greco is the name of a wine style which originated, at least 2,150 years ago, as an Italian imitation of the sweet, strong Greek wines that were exported to Italy at the period of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

and

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

. Its names in other languages were: Latin ''vinum graecum''; English ''Greek'', ''greke'', ''wine greke''; French ''vin grec''. The earliest recipe for ''vinum Graecum'' is in

Cato the Elder Marcus Porcius Cato (; 234–149 BC), also known as Cato the Censor ( la, Censorius), the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write histo ...

's manual of farming, '' De agri cultura'', compiled around 150 BC. Salt is added to the

must Must (from the Latin ''vinum mustum'', "young wine") is freshly crushed fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of t ...

. Once sealed in

amphoras An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

, ''vinum graecum'' is matured under the sun for two years before sale. Incidentally, the name did not necessarily cause confusion with real exported Greek wine, which was called ''vinum transmarinum'' ("overseas wine") in classical Latin. Methods have changed totally over the long history of vino greco, but the name still survives in a few

Italian wine Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine. In 2018 Italy accounted for ...

s, notably the sweet white Greco di Bianco and Greco di Gerace from southern

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

(they both can be only produced in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

area).

Middles Ages to modern day

Vino greco reappears in late medieval and early modern texts from Italy, France, Catalonia,Favà i Agud, Xavier. Diccionari dels noms de ceps i raïms: l'ampelonímia catalana. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 2001, p. 150. Germany and England. Curiously, the 14th century Florentine merchant

Francesco Pegolotti Pegolotti Pratica Ricc.2441 specimen half page. Francesco Balducci Pegolotti ( fl. 1290 – 1347), also Francesco di Balduccio, was a Florentine merchant and politician. Life His father, Balduccio Pegolotti, represented Florence in commercial ne ...

records in '' Pratica della mercatura'' (c. 1340) that vino greco was exported from Italy to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, the Byzantine Greek capital. Again, there was not necessarily any confusion, since wine exported from Greece was at that period usually called ''vino di Romania'' (

Rumney wine Rumney wine was a popular form of Greek wine in England and Europe during the 14th to 16th centuries. Its name was derived from its exporter ''Romania'', which was at that time a common name for Greece and the southern Balkans, the lands of the Eas ...

in English). The Italian gastronome

Platina Platina is a municipality ''( município)'' in the state of São Paulo in Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and ...

, in ''

De honesta voluptate et valetudine ''De honesta voluptate et valetudine'' (''On honest indulgence and good health'', often shortened to ''De honesta voluptate'') was the first cookbook ever printed. Written ca. 1465 by Bartolomeo Platina, it first appeared between 1470 and 1475 in ...

'' (1475), says that the best vino greco was made at

San Gimignano San Gimignano () is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of ...

(''Non improbatur et graecum, maxime vero quod in oppidum Geminianum in Hetruria nascitur''), but he is careful to distinguish it from the still-famous

Vernaccia di San Gimignano Vernaccia is a white Italian wine, made from the Vernaccia grape, produced in and around the Italian hill town of San Gimignano in Tuscany. It was the first Italian wine to be awarded ''Denominazione di Origine Controllata'' (DOC) status in 1966; ...

. Vino greco or wine Greek is described by several authors as being made on the slopes of

Mount Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of s ...

; one such traveller is the scientist

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

, writing in 1673. Ray distinguishes this ''Greco'' from another Vesuvian type, ''Lagrime'', which is evidently the wine now called

Lacryma Christi Lacryma Christi () or Lachryma Christi of Vesuvius is the name of a Neapolitan type of wine produced on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy. White Lacryma Christi is made mainly from Verdeca and Coda di Volpe grapes, with smaller pr ...

References

{{reflist Vinum Graecum Medieval wine Italian wine

Middles Ages to modern day

See also

References