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retsína

ρετσίνα

Malamatina, a greek Restsina wine with glasses

Greece's love-it or hate-it resinated wine is made in Attica, Évia and Boeotia using Savatiano grapes, along with lesser amounts of Asýrtiko and Rodítis, and flavoured with the sap of the Aleppo pine. It's designated PDO (ΠΟΠ) in both Greece and Cyprus.

Retsina actually pairs well with many traditional Greek dishes (back in the 1970s and 80s, before olive oil became THE thing, tourists were advised to drink retsina, or Coca Cola, to make all that wicked olive oil easier to digest).

Greek salad together with a French dry red wine  and a good white Greek Retsina wine.

Retsina has to be drunk very cold, in glass tumblers, and is generally best from the barrel, ρετσίνα βαρελίσιο (retsína varelísio), served in chilled copper-anodized cans that help to keep it cold. Sadly this becoming harder and harder to find as many young people don't like it much.

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Attica

Cyprus

Drinks

PDO, PGI, and TIP

Text © Dana Facaros

Images by Eric Borda, Manfred&Barbara Aulbach, peng