When you think of great wine producing countries, the chances are that Greece will not feature highly on the list, but the truth is that wine has been part of Greek culture for millennia, and the country continues to produce large quantities of wine.
And it is just this lack of knowledge about Greek wine which producers are hoping to overcome with a new website, www.greekwines.com, launched this week.
Targeted at consumers and trade alike, the new site focuses on a new generation of quality wine producers from Greece. "Our mission is to provide the most comprehensive information anywhere about Greek wine. Accurate documentation of the revolution in winemaking in Greece is long overdue," said the site's founder, Nick Cobb.
"In ancient times, Greece played a crucial role in the development of the wine culture of Europe. Nearly two thousand years of foreign occupation took a toll on her fortunes, yet many of Greece's rich viticultural resources remain intact. Sadly, during the 1960s retsina came to dominate all associations with Greek wine," he continued.
"But now, armed with an ocean of indigenous cultivars, a superior climate for grape growing, and an abundance of brainpower and technological resources, Greece's wine industry has become a dynamic synthesis of tradition and innovation."
But all this will be in vain if the message about the new wave of Greek wines does not get through to both the consumer and the trade, said Cobb. Unlike most other European wine producers, where considerable resources are poured into export marketing programmes, Greek producers have been pretty much left to their own devices, and this often means that consumer perceptions remain firmly grounded in the 1960s.
"Until now there has been little information to counter the view that wines of quality cannot be produced in the country. In certain markets, such as America, reliance on ethnic distribution systems has further isolated Greek products from the mainstream," said Cobb.
The greekwinemakers.com website is designed to provide visitors of varying levels of wine knowledge a clear view of the Greek wine industry today. The site includes profiles of Greece's top winemakers, information about Greece's wine history, regions, appellations and unique grape varieties, a wine reviews area where amateurs and professionals can share descriptions of wines they have tasted, forums, photographs illustrating Greece's wine culture, and a wine locator database designed to help consumers find products they read about on the site.
Future plans for the site include a travel section intended to highlight Greece's increasing opportunities for wine tourism and a food section focused on the country's rich, but little understood, culinary traditions.