ARIOUSIOS WINERY

According to the Chian historian Theopompus, Oenopion, son of the god Dionysus, taught the Chians to cultivate vines and produce the "black wine", one of the most remarkable and famous products that Chios produced in antiquity.

The travelers connected the Ariousios Wine with Homer, who they believed to have lived on the island and developed the theory of the existence of "Homer's Wine" or "Homeric nectar" or "Homer's Vine". The people of Chios proudly offered their wine, reminding them that this was the wine that Homer had called "sparkling black wine."

Besides, Aristophanes in "Ecclesiazusae" urged them to drink Chian wine, while the Athenian in "Deipnosofistae" mentions it as "the best one".

The geographer Strabo defines precisely Ariousia Chora (land) between the mountain "Pelinnaion" and the "Melana Akra" Cape, as an area "… producing the most excellent among Greek wines"… In NW Chios, where Mount Amani dominates, this area was producing excellent quality wine in recent times too, especially in the area of ​​Kourounia village.

The Romans, along with the lights of Greek culture, received also Ariousios wine and Latin poets such as Horace and Virgil praise it in their poems.

Its fame continues in Byzantium when, according to Porfirogennitos, the Chian wine was offered at the imperial table as "the strongest" and according to Michael Psellos "… it nourishes the nature of the body…".

It has been widely used in medicine. The famous doctor Galinos from Pergamon used Chian wine for the preparation of various medicines and antidotes.

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