The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails Definition of Greece

Greece may be best known for ouzo when it comes to spirits, but it offers much more than the anise-scented liquor. Given the country’s widespread cultivation of grapevines for wine production, this should come as no surprise—something good has to come of all the muck of grape skins, pulp, and dead yeast left over from the process. The Greeks may even have been the first to apply distillation to the production of potable beverages: While that credit often goes to the Indians, thanks to the discovery of alcohol-producing stills dating to 150 bce in what is now Pakistan, the fact that they were in an Indo-Greek site raises the question of whether the Greeks brought the process to India or took it home with them. Some researchers examining pithoi, large earthenware jars excavated in Crete, have even suggested that the Minoans were distilling alcohol as early as the middle Minoan period (ca. 1900 to 1700 bce). See distillation, history.

It was many more centuries, however, until materials were refined enough to make alcoholic distillation commonplace. Byzantine coppersmiths perfected the alembic, a word that comes from the Greek ambix; this became al-‘anbīḳ in Arabic, referring specifically to the vase-like vessel used in distillation. The Venetians brought their glass-making skills to Greece during their colonization of the Ionian Islands in the mid-fourteenth to late eighteenth centuries; as glass conducts heat much better than the glazed earthenware stills that were common, they were able to produce purer, more potent distillates. Meanwhile, the restrictions placed on the production of alcohol during the Turkish occupation of Greece (1453–1821) did little to diminish the Greek’s reputation for high-quality distillates: as some interpretations of the Qur’an allow for distillates, the Greeks maintained a thriving industry distilling wine castoffs into raki—so much so that the “rakitzides” became a privileged caste. See raki.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, grape marc distillation lost some of its shine, as anyone who made a little wine could distill the leftover pomace and even sell off some of the resulting apóstagma (distillate). See marc. Popularly called tsipouro across northern Greece, tsikoudia in Crete, and zivania in Cyprus, these unaged, unflavored grape distillates remain integral to Greek culture, shared at every social event, even as they remain unknown to most outsiders. It’s not for lack of quality—like Italian grappa, tsipouro comes in a range of variations, including sophisticated single-varietal and barrel-aged versions. See grappa. Rather, the situation stems from a law in 1917 that allowed only grape growers to distill grape marc, while professional distillers were allowed to distill anything, and in industrial quantities. Spirits such as ouzo, by that time distilled with molasses or other non-grape spirits, took over the marketplace. This ruling did not change until 1989; it would take another nineteen years for the EU to declare tsipouro unique to Greece, with specific geographical indications for versions produced in Macedonia, Thessaly, and Tirnavos as well.

Outside of ouzo, Greece’s best-known spirit is most likely Metaxa, which Spyros Metaxa (1843–1909) launched in 1888 with a blend of aged wine distillates, fresh muscat wines from Samos and Limnos, rose petals, and herbs; the company is now owned by drinks giant Rémy Cointreau. But Greece offers much more to the drinks enthusiast, with over two hundred licensed distillers in 2015 and nineteen spirits that carry a PGI—a Protected Geographical Indication, an EU-administered label intended to safeguard traditional products and growing methods for products particular to a place. Masticha of Chios is one of the country’s most unique, flavored with the resin of the mastic tree indigenous to this northern Aegean island. Like ouzo, masticha is drunk cold, with the addition of water, which makes the spirit louche (turn cloudy).

Kumquats provide the flavoring for the Koum Kouat of Corfu, where the fruit of the diminutive citrus trees has earned its own PGI; on Naxos in the Cyclades, the leaves of the citron tree, along with the citrus stems and peels, are distilled for Kitro of Naxos, a spirit that dates to at least the early 1800s. Cinnamon and clove provide the primary flavorings for Tentura, a dark, sweet liqueur that seems to have originated in the port city of Patras as a low-cost alternative to Chartreuse, Bénédictine, and other imported liqueurs, but now has its own PGI. (Distillers on Kythira produce a similarly spiced spirit they call fatourda, but it has no PGI.)

These are just the officially defined spirits; wherever there is a fruit, herb, spice, bark, or nut with an interesting flavor, it’s likely that someone in this country has created a distillate with it. And given the renewed interest in artisan spirits that’s followed the country’s wine renaissance, the list is growing longer quickly.

Greece

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