Thanks to the writings of Homer, many valuable insights into the Customs and traditions of the Greeks from this period were handed down. Homer refers to Greek wine in his writings so often, that the Latin poet Oratios later Vinosus Homerus mentions him. The Greeks traded Greek wine in ancient times by sea in sealed amphora. For Greek wine amphorae were slim with pointed bottom, so that storage and transportation have been efficiently designed. This bottle shape improved even the balance of transport vessels, and allowed the transport of large amounts of Greek wine. Each Greek city-state used different sizes of amphora, so that today the biggest trade centers of Greek Antiquity can be identified. Numerous archaeological findings indicate the regions of Greece and had been famous for their wines.

These include the islands of Chios, Lemnos, Lesbos, Rhodes and Crete, as well as Thrace and Macedonia on the Greek mainland. Countless shipwrecks show that Greek wine in the entire known world of antiquity was traded. Homer sings the Greek wine cellar outside of Troy, full noble wines, primarily supplied by ships from the island of Lemnos. Homer also noted that Greek wine was a valuable commercial product for barter, especially for metals, leather and even slaves. The trade with Greek wine was organized and structured, and was one of the methods of the Greeks, to spread their culture in ancient times. The islands of the Aegean Sea were known in antiquity for the quality of their wines so that Homer described the Aegean Sea as the wine dark sea.

The Greeks knew about the important impact of local ecosystems on the characteristics of Greek wines and were the first that produced wines with designation of origin of higher quality (appellation of origin). Some of the most famous wines, which were traded with higher quality designations of origin were wines from the island of Chios, the island of Thassos from northern Greece and the region of Mende in CHALKIDIKI. This system of designations of origin of higher quality was handled very seriously and for breaches of these laws strict penalties were imposed to secure origin and authenticity of the wines and to ensure. The ancient Greeks introduced methods for the production of Greek wine in their colonies in Italy and Sicily around the eighth century before Christ, and later in France and Spain. The Italian grapes Aglianico, Aleatico, Greco di Tufo, Malvasia di Candia, Malvasia Bianca, Muscat and Moskatelli are all Greek origin. During the golden age of Greece, around 500-300 BC, when the ancient times ruled in Athens, won the wine trade in importance and spread in Northern Europe and the neighboring countries around the Black Sea. During the conquest by Alexander the great winemaking was driven far into Asia. As the Roman Empire gained power in ancient times, shifted the wine trade of Greek wine from the North of the Aegean Sea in the South, and focused mainly on Crete and Rhodes. During the first century before Christ, the golden years began Cretan Wine-making. Amphorae from this period of Crete were found in France, the Switzerland, many towns in Italy and even Pompeii. Trade of wine sills also gained importance, whereby indigenous Greek varieties of the countries of the ancient world were disseminated.