🍇 Roditis

Roditis is a Greek grape variety with pink skin, used mostly for white wines. According to OIV it covers 9,000 ha in Greece (8.4% of vineyards), second after Savatiano. Roditis is named in the specifications of the PDOs Patras and Anchialos and several PGIs, and together with Savatiano it is the basis of Retsina Attikis, a wine made with Aleppo pine resin.

In the PDO Patras, Roditis is the only variety in the list: the specification calls it dominant in the region and mentions it on the Ionian Islands since the 16th century. The wines are white, with fresh acidity. In Anchialos, Roditis and Savatiano give aromas of lemon, pear, melon and orange.

Under EU law, retsina is wine made from grape juice treated with Aleppo pine resin, and only in Greece. For the PGI Retsina Attikis up to 1 kg of resin per 100 L of juice is allowed, with a yield up to 12,000 kg/ha and acidity of at least 4.5 g/L. In the PGI Plagies Aigialeias, Roditis has its own limit — 14,000 kg/ha against 12,000 for other varieties.

According to VIVC, Roditis is one parent of Savatiano (the other is Karystino; DNA markers); it is listed first in the database, probably as the mother.

Why it matters to you. Pink berries do not make pink wine — Roditis is almost always white. Retsina is not a variety but a type of wine; if you do not like resin, look for Roditis in ordinary whites, for example from Patras. In a PGI it is only one of several varieties, so do not expect pure Roditis on the label.