🍷 Retsina

Retsina is a Greek white or rosé wine made with resin of the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) added to the grape must. The resin gives it a pine aroma and a resinous taste. Greek law calls it a resinated wine and has regulated it since Presidential Decree 514/1979 on the production, control and protection of resinated wines.

EU winemaking rules allow Aleppo pine resin only for retsina, and only in the territory of Greece. The must has to come from the grape varieties, production areas and winemaking areas set by Greek national rules in force on 31 December 1980. No more than 1,000 grams of resin may be added per hectolitre, before fermentation or during it while the actual alcohol is still no more than one third of the total potential alcohol. If Greece wants to change its rules on grapes and areas for retsina, it must notify the European Commission in advance.

The EU register eAmbrosia lists 15 retsinas with a protected geographical indication (PGI). Nine are in Attica: Attiki, Mesogia, Markopoulo, Koropi (Kropia), Paiania (Liopesi), Pallini, Pikermi, Spata and Megara. Two are in Boeotia (Viotia and Thebes) and four on Evia (Evia, Chalkida, Karystos and Gialtra). Retsina of Attiki has been protected in the EU since 2004. These wines may carry the Greek traditional term «onomasia kata paradosi» (traditional designation), which the EU register reserves for wines produced only in Greece and, for retsina, made from must treated with Aleppo pine resin.

The technical file of PGI Retsina of Attiki gives an example of the rules. The wine is dry white or dry rosé from the Savatiano and Roditis grapes, with 10.0–13.5 % vol of alcohol, at most 4 g/l of sugar and at least 4.5 g/l of total acidity. The resin, up to 1 kg per 100 litres of must, goes in before fermentation or while no more than a third of the sugar has fermented. Yields are capped at 12,000 kg of grapes or 90 hl of wine per hectare, and the area covers the whole of Attica. It is forbidden to give a wine a resinous character by any other flavouring, or to blend resinated wine with other types of wine.

The same file lists traditional label terms: kokineli, young or fresh retsina (Retsina neuve), which must contain about 1 g/l of carbon dioxide, and cask retsina (Retsina en fûts).

The file also links retsina with antiquity. It cites research by Martlew on residues in vessels from Crete and mainland Greece, according to which the Minoans made wine with resin as early as 1700 BC, and analyses of clay vessels from Myrtos in southern Crete, dated 2700–2200 BC, that held wine with resin. Resin first sealed amphorae and kept wine from spoiling; later it was added to the must for aroma and keeping. In 1914 the MARKO cooperative was founded in Markopoulo, which, according to the file, supplied retsina to the whole Attica basin.

Why it matters to you. The word retsina on a Greek label means resin was added under these rules; a place name after it means one of the 15 PGIs. Serve it chilled. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.