Originally Posted by
TMOliver
My long time Greek restaurateur/neighbor always claimed that the basis for adding the Aleppo pine resin to the wine dated to an era when the cheap, not very popular white wines from a part of Greece were fermented in barrels made from pine. uncured and rather "resinous". The tale always sounded credible.
I was given the same explanation as you, but also told that when you're eating copious amounts of lamb, which is a fairly fatty meat, the retsina helps to cut through the fat and clean the mouth.