Mesogeia Retsina Wineries

Retsina is wine flavoured with resin from the Aleppo pine, a practice that began as a way of sealing amphorae and survived as a taste, and its heartland is the Mesogeia plain east of Athens, where Savatiano vines grow on flat brown soil between Koropi, Markopoulo, Spata and Paiania. The mass-market version gave the drink its reputation, but a generation of producers has been making serious retsina since the 2010s, resinated lightly and aged, and Greek wine writers now treat it as a category worth attention rather than a joke. Several family wineries in the plain receive visitors for tastings, some with old amphorae and presses on display, and the region also produces unresinated Savatiano whites. The harvest runs in September.

What you actually see

• The Savatiano vineyards - flat vine country between the Attic villages.
• The wineries - family producers offering tastings by arrangement.
• The resin practice - pine resin added during fermentation, explained on visits.
• The September harvest - picking and pressing across the plain.

When to go

September and October for harvest activity; tastings run year-round but generally need booking. Spring is pleasant for driving the plain, which is otherwise unremarkable landscape.

Honest expectations

The Mesogeia is suburban and industrial in parts, with the airport and motorways cutting through, so this is not scenic wine country. Visits require a car and therefore a designated driver. Retsina divides opinion sharply, and the cheap supermarket version is not representative.

Nearby

Brauron and the eastern Attic coast lie east; Athens is half an hour west.