Retsina is the amphora's memory. Ancient wine jars were sealed with Aleppo pine resin against air and spoilage, and Greeks came to love the taste the seal left behind; when better vessels arrived, the flavour stayed by demand. It remains the only wine in the world flavoured with resin by law, the pine added to the fermenting must on purpose.
For decades it was the taverna cliché — rough, cheap, poured over ice for tourists — until a new wave took it seriously again: old-vine Savatiano from Attica, barrel ageing, a gentler hand with the resin. Pine, lemon, mastic and sea air, and behind them one of wine's longest continuities: a preservative that outlived its purpose to become a taste.