🍇 Savatiano
Greece's most planted wine grape: 10,500 ha in 2015; white, an offspring of Roditis and Karystino, the basis of Retsina of Attica.
Savatiano is a white wine grape from Greece and the most widely planted in the country. According to the OIV, it covered 10,500 ha in 2015. The VIVC catalogue shows how the area has changed: 15,300 ha in 1989 and 12,747 ha in 1999.
Its pedigree is fully known: by DNA markers, Savatiano is an offspring of Roditis and the little-known Karystino. It has 45 synonyms, including Perachoritiko, Kontoura aspri and Dombrena aspri, so on old labels it turns up under different names. According to VIVC it is purely a wine grape and is not used for the table.
Savatiano's heartland is Attica and Central Greece around Athens. Here it is the basis of retsina, a white wine with added Aleppo pine resin. EU Regulation 2019/934 allows this practice only in Greece, and the rules of the regional wine Retsina of Attica limit the resin to one kilogram per 100 litres of juice. The second grape in this retsina is Roditis.
Retsina is not the only wine made from Savatiano, though. It also gives ordinary dry white wines without resin, including under the regional wine of Central Greece.
Why it matters to you. If the bottle says "Retsina", the taste of resin will be clear; if it just says "Savatiano", you have an ordinary white wine. A grape named on an EU wine label means at least 85 % of that grape. Like most whites, Savatiano is served at 4–10 °C.
How it connects to Wine
🍇 Savatiano → kind of → 🍇 Grape varieties → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Traditions
- 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks
- Part of
- 🍇 Grape varieties
- Origin
- 🗺️ Greek wine
- Where it grows
- 📜 Attica, 📍 Anchialos, 📍 Central Greece and Attica, 📍 Attica (Mesogeia), 📍 Thessaly
- Main grape in
- Greece: 📜 Retsina of Attica, 📍 Anchialos, 📜 Thebes, 📜 Retsina of Euboea, 📜 Retsina of Koropi, 📜 Retsina of Mesogeia, 📜 Retsina of Pikermi, 📜 Spata, 📜 Markopoulo, 📜 Retsina of Boeotia
- Wines made from it
- 🍷 Retsina
- Parents
- 🍇 Roditis
- Similar and different
- 🍇 Roditis
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that Savatiano is Greece's most planted grape?
Yes: 10,500 ha in 2015, according to the OIV, more than any other wine grape in the country.
What are Savatiano's parents?
Roditis and Karystino; VIVC confirms this with DNA markers.
Is all Savatiano wine retsina?
No. Retsina is just one style; the grape also makes ordinary dry whites.
How much resin goes into Retsina of Attica?
No more than 1 kg of Aleppo pine resin per 100 litres of juice.
Where does Savatiano grow?
Mainly in Attica and Central Greece around Athens.
What to read next
- 🗺️ Greek wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grape varieties, appellations.
- 📍 Anchialos — A coastal zone near Volos.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks — The people of Greece, in the south of the Balkans and on Mediterranean islands; olives grown for over 4,000 years, with olive oil, feta and wine.
- 📍 Central Greece and Attica — Central Greece with Attica, Boeotia and Euboea; about 21 thousand ha, 28 % of the country's vineyards; the heartland of Savatiano and retsina.
- 📜 Pallini — A regional wine from the town of Pallini on the Mesogeia plain east of Athens.
Similar
🍇 Assyrtiko · 🍇 Xinomavro · 🍇 Mandilaria · 🍇 Roditis · 🍇 Krassato · 🍇 Limniona
Sources
- VIVC (Vitis International Variety Catalogue): passport Savvatiano
- VIVC: area statistics SAVVATIANO
- OIV Focus 2017: Distribution of the world's grapevine varieties
- eAmbrosia — technical file: PGI «Ρετσίνα Αττικής / Retsina of Attiki»
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/934 (oenological practices; Aleppo pine resin for retsina)
- Simons C.T. Left out in the cold: Serving wines chilled. Temperature, 2019
- Purdue Extension FS-58-W: Wine storage