Pine-Resin Flavored Wine Delights Despite Reputation

OK. OK. Just because this column is about that curious Greek wine called retsina, you needn't make that face. And you can stifle those comments about it tasting like kerosene or stove oil, too. We've heard them all.

Actually, I used to be among those nay-sayers myself until I began traveling to Greece and enjoying retsina with food. Sitting at an outdoor cafe overlooking the Aegean Sea and snacking on some fresh seafood or other Greek speciality, retsina is a perfect choice. It's a good summer white wine as well as it can be very refreshing during the warm weather months.

Actually on my first visit to Greece I tended to ignore retsina myself, instead drinking some of the better reds of Crete. Then a friend who operates a restaurant on one of the islands in the northern Aegean poured me a glass of a locally made retsina. It was served from a metal pitcher which she refilled from a large container in the kitchen. I was amazed at how light and refreshing it was and quite low in the pine resin which, of course, is used to flavor it and the subject of all the debate.

This year during our two-week stay in Greece I became interested enough to make an appointment with one of the country's big wineries and a major wine producer of retsina. There I finally learned the true story of how this Greek wine came to be flavored with resin in the first place. There must be a dozen different versions of the story including the one that has the invading Turks punishing the Greeks by pouring pine resin in their wine. So the story goes, instead of spitting it out, the Greeks liked it and have been dousing resin in their wine ever since.

Get ready for the real story: In ancient days wine jugs were sealed with a pine resin cap and shipped off to market. As the wine sloshed about during the sea voyage it became accented with the resin and apparently the thirsty consumers of the day rather liked it.

Today, the resin is a separate ingredient and there are various theories on how much should be added.

Personally, I enjoy the ones with a lighter dose. Ironically, the island where I spent most of my time, Skyros, is the major supplier of pine resin for retsina all over Greece. It is collected from the pine trees much in the same manner as maple syrup is drawn from trees in the northeastern U.S.

The winery I visited, by the way, was Kourtakis and its retsina is readily available here in Seattle, selling for about $6 a bottle. Kourtakis is known for making a lighter style retsina. But there are other fine brands available as well including Boutari, which makes a fine one for about the same price, and Achaia Clauss. Many of these can be purchased in magnum-sized bottles as well and are popular on the wine lists of local Greek restaurants.

Tip of the week

Looking for a light summer white for entertaining friends out on the patio? There are many on the market right now, but one I've enjoyed recently was the Mediterranean White from Rene Barbier in Spain. Believe it or not, it's on sale for about $4 a bottle. It comes in Mediterranean red, too, at the same price.

Wine by Tom Stockley appears Wednesday in the Food section of The Times. On The Seattle Times InfoLine, Tom Stockley gives weekly tips and advice for choosing wines. To hear the recorded messages, call 464-2000 on a touch-tone phone and then enter category WINE (9463). Calls to InfoLine are free in the greater Seattle area.