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There are about 300 native grapes in Greece, many of them highly local and with distinctive flavours. Just over half the 150,000ha (370,500 acres) planted are for winemaking; the rest are for eating or for the dried fruit industry.
white wine varieties
Important white-wine varieties include Assyrtiko, which holds its acid well, is found on Santorini and is spreading to other areas; Rhoditis, a pink-skinned variety from the Pelo-ponnese, also now being planted further afield; and Savatiano from central Greece and Attica, the basic grape for retsina but now found, on the right sites, to produce good dry white wine. Other white-wine grapes include the pink-shinned, del-Mantinia, the Robola from Cephalonia and the Vilana of Crete.
red-wine varieties
Important red-wine varieties include Agioritiko, or St George, which produces the wines of Nemea; Limnio an ancient variety originally from Lemnos, but now growing successfully in Halkidiki in northern Greece, with ageing capacity; and Xynomavro, native to northern Greece. Mandelaria is widely planted on the islands, giving wine of enormous colour but light in body, while Mavrodaphne, found mainly around Patras, makes a fortified red wine of considerable character.
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