Retsina

 ( Greek Wine ) 

The Roman settlements in Illyria, Cisalpine Gaul and Gallia Narbonensis did not use resin-coated amphorae due to the lack of suitable local pine trees and began to develop solid, less leak-prone wooden barrels in the 1st century AD. By the 3rd century, barrel making was prevalent throughout the Roman Empire. The exception was the eastern empire regions of Byzantine Empire which had developed a taste for the strong, pungent wine and continued to produce resinated wine long after the Western Roman Empire stopped. The difference in taste between the two empires took center stage in the work of the historian Liutprand of Cremona and his Relatio de Legatione Constantinopolitana. In 968, Liutprand was sent to Constantinople to arrange a marriage between the daughter of the late Emperor Romanos II and the future Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. According to Liutprand, he was treated very rudely and in an undignified manner by the court of Nikephoros II, being served goat meat stuffed with onion and served in garum and "undrinkable" wine mixed with resin, pitch and gypsum—very offensive to his Germanic tastes.

Pilgrimage and Crusaders to the Holy Land during the Middle Ages recorded their experiences with the strong, resin wines of the Greek islands. Pietro Casola, an Italian noble who traveled to Jerusalem in 1494, wrote about the wines and cuisines of the places he stopped at along the way. In one of his entries, about his visit to Modone on Peloponnese, he wrote about the bounty of good quality wines made from Malmsey, Muscatel and Rumney wine varieties. Everything he tried was pleasing, except the strong, resinated wine with an unpleasant odour.