Greek wines seek to regain mythic allure

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 flavored with pine resin served to generations of package tourists. But Greece has a longer winemaking tradition than its more famous European neighbors.

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