5,000 Years of Fine Cretan Wines

The long history of wine on Crete includes wine from a Minoan shipwreck, the role of Dionysos/Bacchus, and the famous Malvasia wine among other glimpses throughout the centuries. Legacy grape varietals have been recognized and replanted with a renewed appreciation by modern Cretan winemakers for the practices used by their forebears.

Like the Roman god Janus, this book looks to both the past and the future in discussing the long history of quality wine on this beautiful island. After a brief historical introduction, the story travels back 5,000 years to a windswept hilltop in eastern Crete where archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence of a fermented beverage on the island. There follows a series of glimpses into the many ensuing centuries including the evidence of wine from a Minoan shipwreck off the northern coast of the island, the role often played by the god known as Dionysos/Bacchus, and the famous Malvasia wine that many believe was made in Crete and traded widely during the four centuries that Venice occupied the island. Recently, this history has come alive again with the recognition, replanting, and vinification of legacy grape varietals combined with a renewed appreciation by modern Cretan winemakers for the practices used by their forebears. All is good on this beautiful island!

1. Cretan Wine: A Brief Historical Overview of the Greek Island
2. An Introduction to Wine of Ancient Crete
3. The Early Bronze Age: An Early Phase in a Long Tradition of Wine in Crete
4. The Middle Bronze Age: Wine Trade in Crete
5. The Late Bronze Age: What the Minoan Tablets Say about Wine
6. Classical Greece: Dionysos/Bacchus, the Greco-Roman God of Wine
7. Cretan Heritage 1: The Wine Glass with a Stem and Base
8. Cretan Heritage 2: The Great Jar Tradition
9. Byzantine Wine and the Geoponika
10. The Enigmatic Malvasia di Candia Wine
11. The Heritage Grapes of Cretan Wine
12. The Message on the Bottle
13. Glimpses of the Past in the Future of Cretan Wines: Resins, Raisins, Pots, and People

Al Leonard (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor emeritus in both Classical Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, as well as an honorary associate at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East. An archaeologist who specializes in the social impact of interregional trade, Al has directed excavations in Italy, Egypt, Cyprus, Portugal, Israel, and Jordan, but Crete has always been his favorite place to excavate, study, or simply relax with a glass of fine Cretan wine. In addition to archaeology, Al writes and speaks on wine and food as his alter ego, the Time Traveling Gourmet, and has been a member of the Society of Wine Educators and Slow Food International for over 20 years. He is the author of Mediterranean Wines of Place: A Celebration of Heritage Grapes (Lockwood Press, 2020) and is presently the president of the Friends of the INSTAP Study Center for East Crete. Philip P. Betancourt is the Laura H. Carnell Professor Emeritus of Aegean Prehistoric Art and Archaeology at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in philadelphia. He is the author or editor of an extensive series of books and other scholarly publications that primarily deal with research on the Minoan civilization of the Aegean Bronze Age. He has been honored with many awards including an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, and in 2003 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement from the Archaeological Institute of America.

• By (author) Philip P. Betancourt
• By (author) Jr. Albert Leonard

"Within the first few pages of this amazingly beautiful book, the authors have provided—with scientific completeness—an excellent picture of the viti-viniculture and overall culture of Crete! We are particularly moved by their care and love for the island, as they emerge from every single page! Thank you so much for this wonderful journey and experience."

— Maritina Stavrakaki & Manolis Stavrakakis, authors of The Cretan Grapes (Tropi, 2017)