Ancient Greek Wine

Wine was very important in Ancient Greek and not just to drink but it was a big part of trade.

Trade

The Ancient Greek’s were very good at trading and they would trade with their neighbors.

The Greek’s were very good at wine making and so they would trade the wine with their neighbors and now countries like France, Italy, Russia and more have many different wines all because of the people from Ancient Greek times.

When people would settle in Ancient Greece to live, many of them would bring their own grapevines and they learned to grow wild vines so that they could make wine.

Athens

Athens was a very big wine producer and had many vineyards.

The Greeks would share the way that they made wine and so other towns in Ancient Greece were able to pick up these wine making tips and would make their own wine.

Grapes

Grapes were important to the Ancient Greek’s and so many of their coins and artwork is known to have grape clusters on them.

Religion

Wine was a big part of religion and people of Ancient Greece would give wine to the gods and would offer wine to the gods in jars.

These jars were called wine jars.

Medicine

The Ancient Greek’s would use wine to help cure sicknesses.

Wine was good to make fevers go away and was also used to help with digestive problems that people had.

Even Greek doctors would prescribe wine if someone was sick and they would tell them how much to drink in order to get better from their sicknesses.

Wine-making

The Greeks would do what was called pigeage which was a term for crushing the grapes.

This was part of the cycle of making wine.

The Greek’s would place grapes in wicker baskets and then they would be put in containers that had a long wood piece and a rope.

The workers would lower the piece of wood down with the rope onto the grapes and the grapes would be crushed.

In other winemaking techniques, the people would crush the grapes with their feet.

Festival

When it was time to make wine, some of the cities would have festivals and during the festival, people would crush the grapes to make them into a liquid.

Musicians would play the flute while the grapes were crushed and then the liquid would be put into jars called pithoi jars.

The grapes would ferment in the jars and that is when they would turn to wine.

Spices

Many of the Greek’s would add spices to the grapes so that the wine would be sweet.

Some of the spices used were herbs, spice, oil, brine, resin, seawater and even perfume.

 

Facts About Ancient Greek Wine:

• Many authors and poets would write about wine and tell if the wine was good or bad tasting.
• Pramnian was a nickname for a wine that was dark in color.
• Wine could be black, red or clear.
• One Ancient Greek named Hermippus said that good wines were “violets, roses and hyacinth.”
• The Ancient Greeks would put the wine in snow so that it would stay cold.
• Wine was usually watered down so that it would not make people drunk.
• One Ancient Greek chef named Brennus killed himself by drinking Greek wine that wasn’t watered down.

 

What Did You Learn?

1. What was the most important thing about Ancient Greek wine?  One of the most important things about Ancient Greek wine was that it was used for trade.
2. What was an ingredient in wine that the Ancient Greek’s thought was very important? The Ancient Greek’s thought grapes were very important, and they were often seen in pictures and on coins.
3. How was wine made? Wine was made by the people using a wood board or their feet to crush the grapes and then the grape juice would be put in jars where it would ferment and turn to wine.
4. What did poets and authors think about wine? Poets and authors of Ancient Greece would write about wine and would say if it was good wine or bad wine.
5. How did the Ancient Greek’s make the wine, so it wasn’t too strong? The Ancient Greek’s would water down the wine so it wasn’t too strong.