In the new era, modern tourists seek something more than a nice hotel, a museum or a restaurant. They want to combine their vacations with experiences and knowledge with something they love. Wine is something that most people love and that’s why wine tourism was created.
Greece is one of the oldest wine–producing regions in the world. The history of wine goes back centuries ago. Dionysus, the ancient Greek God of Wine, was one of the 12 gods of Olympus and people worshiped him. For honoring their god, they cultivated vines and produced wines with special care for many centuries.
The climate, the fertile soil, the sunny weather almost all the year created special grape varieties and some of the finest wines. Over the years, in today’s Greece, the combination of new techniques and technology with the old methods helped many of the produced wines to be internationally recognized and awarded.
The most popular viticultural areas, attracted by thousands of visitors around the world are Santorini, Crete, Chalkidiki, Naousa, Nemea, Samos, Limnos, and Metsovo. However, there are many other wine regions less famous, scattered all over Greece that are worth visiting.
Wine tourism is a new developing type of alternative tourism very loved to the fans of wine. It’s a journey into the wine world. The visitor has the chance to discover the vineyards, visit a Greek winery and meet its owners, to learn its history and to witness the whole process of winemaking, from grape harvest to bottling. He can learn about the marriage of tradition and technology and how it is applied at the winemaking process. He can visit the wine cellars, which are full of barrels and bottles and taste a large variety of local wines or even buy some. He can taste some local delicacies, like cheese, fruits, spreads, bread that are offered along with the wine tastings and he can learn all about the right combination of food with different varieties of wine.
Wine tours are organized by several companies throughout Greece. They organize visits to wineries, sightseeing, visits to archaeological sites and museums and several other activities like horse riding, biking, hiking, even diving if there is near a beach.
Some wineries have at their premises, beautiful guest houses and visitors can prolong a little more the wine’s journey!