Lesbos wine

Methymneos winery. Methymneos is spelled in Greek letters above the building's awning-covered, opened door.
Methymnaeos Winery of Chidira, Lesbos

Lesbos wine is wine made on the Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea. The island has a long history of winemaking dating back to at least the 7th century BC when it was mentioned in the works of Homer.[1][2] During this time the area competed with the wines of Chios for the Greek market. An apocryphal account details one of the brothers of the poet Sappho as a merchant trading Lesbos wine with the Greek colony of Naucratis in Egypt. The most noted Lesbos wine was known as Pramnian which draws similarities today to the Hungarian wine Eszencia.[3] The popularity of Lesbos wine continued into Roman times where it was highly valued along with other Aegean wines of Chios, Thasos and Kos.[4]

  1. ^ Homer. Odyssey, X.235.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oxford pg 328 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ H. Johnson. Vintage: The Story of Wine. Simon and Schuster, 1989, ISBN 0-671-68702-6, p. 44.
  4. ^ J. Robinson (ed) The Oxford Companion to Wine (Third Edition). Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-19-860990-6, p. 5.