The travails of Greece are far from a modern or recent phenomenon. By comparison with the catastrophe of WW2, or centuries of Turkish misrule and Venetian colonial administration their shoehorning into an ill-fitting euro currency is a tiny blip. Greece is one of the cradles of early wine civilisation (after all, they planted most of southern Italy with Greek vines a couple of thousand years ago), but for aeons impoverished Greeks have treated wine as an inexpensive commodity to be sipped with a meal.

But the country has a trove of unique indigenous grape varieties to give us modern wines of distinct character. It also has a growing number of patriotic younger growers who are exploiting both the native vines and the extraordinary terroirs where they grow as well as adopting more advanced cellar techniques to preserve the quality and character of the fruit and soils.

Jessica Dixon and Evangelia Tevekelidou will take you through our small but perfectly formed range of Greek wines today from midday. Prepare to be entranced by the glory that is Greece. /CW