Restina
 

I went to a birthday party tonight at a Greek restaurant. At my table there was an Greek-Australian couple who insisted the night wasn't complete until we tried restina -- several bottles of. Am I the only who thinks that a) it gets you drunk, and b) it tastes like toilet cleaner?

Everything else about the night was excellent^, although the above may have helped:D.

It's actually retsina, and yes, your assessment of it is spot on.

It's made from pine tree resin or something like that. I tried some once and decided there was really no need to do it again, but the Greeks seem to like it. I think it dates back to ancient Greco-Roman times...

Bottoms up!

Retsina is indeed made with Aleppo wine resin added during fermentation; thankfully it is filtered out during racking, so modern retsina is far less strong tasting than the historical wine -- which was historically credited with killing many non-Greeks who partook of too much Greek wine. To me it tastes like turpentine mixed with Pinesol. Of course the grape varieties used to make it are fairly poor tasting to begin with, so maybe retsina is the best use of those grapes.

Heh, fair enough. I'll stick with pinot noir, thank you very much. :)

Your assesment of turpentine is spot on, it smells like something that should be applied to a wooden deck to help preserve it.

Thankfully the restaurant ran out of the retsina and we had to switch back to a NZ white.

To me it taste like Dove Shampoo.

I'm amazed anyone has tasted Pinesol, turpentine or shampoo!

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.

But then, think of Vermouth, traditionally in parts of Italy produced from otherwise unpalatable and unpopular local "vintages". The additions such as quinine, citrus peelings, etc. altered the flavor, and dosage with the cheapest available brandy guaranteed almost endless "shelf life".

Traveling in Italy as a poorly-paid Navy Ensign, I even learned to drink vermouth as many Italians do, the cheapest available alcoholic beverage. During the same period, I recall Retsina being among the cheapest of tipples in parts of Greece, although hardened Navy personnel on Liberty/Shore Leave (Officers do not go on "Liberty", but take "Shore Leave".) usually chose Ouzo, cheap back in the early 60s, and a reminder of childhood doses of Paregoric.

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.

We may have to get ElmhurstNick to give us the true skinny on this, but I was told that they actually began to "spike" their white wine with Aleppo resin so the Ottoman Turks would think that all their wines were so terrible that they would not confiscate or otherwise look for them.

I do remember one rather enebriated gentleman at our Med-Fest coming back to the beer and wine booth asking for another bottle of that "bad sh!t." LOL Apparently, the drunker you get on it, the less offensive it becomes. :D

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William R. Sanders
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Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

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I can vouch for this.

The Greeks have been making and drinking wine for centuries, and in the ancient days wine was stored in jars and amphorae. Not being airtight the wine had a tendency to spoil quickly. Someone apparently had the idea to use a paste of pine resin to seal the jars, and it was noticed that the wine kept longer. Assuming that the pine resin was responsible, it eventually became the norm to simply add pine resin to the wine to improve its keeping power. Today we understand that oxygen is the culprit and pine resin mixed with the wine won't do anything to prevent oxidation, but it seems that Retsina is culturally ingrained in the Greeks. And technically, like vermouth, Retsina is an aromatized wine, i.e. other flavors have been added to "enhance" the wine. Personally, I'll opt for Pinot Noir to cut the fattiness of the lamb, and toothpaste to clean my mouth! :p

Cheers!
Gregg Smith
Sommelier and Independent Consultant

I always thought like it tasted like the smell you get if a pingpong ball cracks open.

Some further research has altered my "take" to agree with the contention that the resin came not from the casks/barrels, but from the resin used to seal the amphorae/clay containers used to store the wine. By "modern times' (Christian era), wood for barrel staves in Greece had become a high priced and scarce commodity, and most local wine makers continued to use unfired clay. Sealing the stoppers, clay themselves in the case of museum examples I've seen, commonly depended upon resin (Aleppo or not?), likely enough to "flavor' the contents.

Makes sense, if nothing else, especially noting the scarcity of sizeable trees (except olive) in Greece today. I'm glad that the Greeks managed to avoid using pines and other evergreens for cooking lamb and goat. Better that the wine taste of turpentine than the lamb and goat.

I find the current US practice of using mesquite for cooking fires in the US to be overdone. There's a lot of mesquite in my vicinity, and a lot of places restaurants which employ it for grilling and smoking. Give me hickory or pecan. Even green oak can impart a harsh flavor, diminishing the natural flavors of the meat.

This thread brought back from a long forgotten or suppressed memory of a Greek wedding where a bottle of Restina was left on every table. I just remember a three day hangover and having some little old Greek lady come up to me on the street a few weeks later grab my cheeks and tell me I did the Greek dances better than anyone at the wedding. For an Irish kid from Pittsburgh this was somewhat enlightening as to this day I don't remember doing any Greek dancing.

:D