Wine of the Gods

I'm reading a little political thriller titled Act of Treason by Vince Flynn when I came along this little quote:

"Retsina is a Greek wine that is preserved with pine resin.  To some deluded Greek nationalists it is the wine of the gods.  To anyone who has ever tasted a decent bottle of French Bordeaux, retsina is about as enjoyable as drinking turpentine."

Well, I didn't know that about the wine of the gods.  Heck, I don't know much about wine at all, not being a big drinker.  When I do drink, it is with a distinctly low budget taste - very sweet and as un-dry as you can get.  So I looked it up.  Here is what I found:

Funny enough, the Epicurious Dictionary (of which I do not own a copy) says that retsina is "sappy and turpentinelike."  Ha!  Right from my book.  But that still doesn't tell me how they get the wine of the gods.  I continued my search and found out that you must pair it with Greek foods to get the full flavor (doesn't help me much), it gets its flavor from pine resin (well maple syrup is tree sap too and that's not too bad), and - FINALLY - the pine flavor made people think that it was tree nymph tears.  I'm not so sure that drinking tears sounds to appetizing (even if it is the tears of a mythological being.  

Heck, I'd try it.  Probably hate it, but I'd try it.  How about you?  Anyone out there ever try this stuff?  Leave a comment and tell me if it is as godly as they say.

If you'd like to read about wine and mythology from around the world, hit this link. AND DON'T FORGET TO TELL ME WHAT THIS STUFF TASTES LIKE!