A taste of Kefalonia

In the sun-bathed vineyards outside Argostoli, where the fictional Captain Corelli wooed his love Pelagia, the descendants of a real-life Italian soldier are conducting their own love affair with Greek wines.

Many consumers, when they imagine Greek wine, think with a shudder of retsina: a cheap white wine flavoured with pine resin served to generations of package tourists. But Greece has a longer winemaking tradition than its more famous European neighbours.

The wines of Kefalonia -- a verdant island in the sparkling waters of the Ionian sea -- were once prized across the Mediterranean, before centuries of colonisation, war and poverty brought Greek winemaking to its knees.

Now the small Gentilini vineyard, run by a distant relative of a 16th-century Venetian commander, is part of a new generation of winemakers using unique local grape varieties to put the country's vintages back on the map.
International Herald Tribune