A Taste of Corfu, Greece

It is said that the Roman soldiers based in Corfu were so spoiled by the quality of the wine there, that they would drink only wine with a fine bouquet. Nothing much has changed with local tastes, some two thousand years later. Fine local wine is still much savoured and sought after, throughout the island. Wine is treated with a gourmets delight in colour, flavour, bouquet and the pleasure it gives to the palate. It is treated with a reverence that is only afforded to one other product here, which is olive oil.
 
 The quality of the olive oil and wine produced in Corfu, Greece, has always had a wonderful reputation throughout the world. It is believed that the type of olive trees, a native tall free growing tree, may have been here naturally since stone age times, but the huge number of Olive trees currently on the island is mostly because of the Venetians. They offered the local population 39 drachmae bonus for every ten olive trees planted, hence the four million olive trees that thrive on an island which covers only about 500 square kilometers of land. The trees here are not the short shrubs that grow on islands like Crete, but massive specimens which often grow more than thirty feet high. None of the products of the Olive tree are wasted. The oil is used for cooking, medicinal purposes, and on the skin and hair. It is also used to fill oil lamps, and the waste oil from the kitchen is poured onto the kindling to get a fire started quickly. The olives are pickled and eaten (they cannot be eaten straight from the tree, they are far too bitter!) The pulp from the crushed olives that have been crushed to extract the oil is dried and is used as fuel in the wood burners in the winter.
 
 The olive growers spread nets around the olive trees in Corfu, and wait for the ripe olives to drop off the trees, instead of picking them from the trees, or knocking them off the branches with sticks, as they do in most other parts of Greece. The Corfiots are reputed to beat neither their trees nor their women.

There is a long olive gathering season in Corfu, it lasts from December, when the first olives begin to drop from the trees, to July. The olives which drop into the nets are gathered for the oil, the olives which are picked from the trees in April are the ones used for pickling ready for use on the table or in salads. From March to May the trees are producing olives and olive blossom at the same time. The air above Corfu is often thick with what appears to be a dark green mist or smog, but in reality it is a thick cloud of olive dust from the trees. It can even be seen floating on the surface of the sea and swimming pools throughout the island.
 
 One strange fact is that you may buy a piece of land in Corfu, but someone else may own the olive trees that stand on it. People are discouraged from cutting down the trees anyway, but if they belong to someone else, cutting them down at all, is out of the question.Families may have owned olive trees on someone elses land for hundreds of years. The Orthodox church owns thousands of trees that stand on land the church has sold to other people. The olives from these trees are often not collected, and may be left to rot on the ground, as the villagers will think of them as belonging to God.
 
 The olive oil produced in Corfu is usually of very high quality. The quality is measured by the acidity of the oil. The lower the acidity, the higher the quality. Even the poorest of olive oil in Corfu is rarely more than 3 percent acidic. Almost all the oil is cold pressed in the old traditional stone olive presses, so it is classed as extra virgin olive oil. Each area has its own particular flavour and quality of both oil and olives.It can range from very dark green to a light golden colour in Corfu. It is possible to buy it at the vegetable market in town, or from stalls at the side of the road in the villages.Most will be happy to let you taste the oil before you buy.Poorer quality oil will be used for cooking, but the best will be used at the table, for anything from salad dressing to pouring over feta cheese or fish straight from the oven.

It is often used instead of butter or margerine on bread, and tastes wonderful used this way. In Corfu it is also used for deep frying food, but it is thrown away after being used this way, it cannot be reused for deep frying, as it will taste bitter and burnt.
 
 It is also used on the skin, both for massage and skin complaints. A lot of olive oil in your diet will do wonders for your skin, and it is known to lower cholesterol. It is truly an amazing product. Greece has one of the highest levels of olive oil consumption in the world, and one of the lowest rates of heart disease and cholesterol levels.
 
 There are many types of wine produced in Corfu, and the quality ranges from wonderful to truly awful. The best wines are fit for a King, the worst are fit for stripping paint! Almost all the wines that grace the tables in homes and tavernas in Corfu are locally produced. Most bottled wines are seen as drink for the tourists and visitors from the mainland, the locals and the people in the know usually order the village wines. Most are sold by the jug full by the taverna, which also makes its own wine for the table. The grapes grow quickly in the hot moist atmosphere of Corfu in the summer, and by the beginning of September the grapes are ready to be picked.
 
 The grapes are all gathered before the weather breaks for the first autumn storms in mid September. Each villager has his own traditional recipes for their family wine. Some are made strictly from one type of grape, from one place, others are made from a special combination of several grapes to get the colour and flavour of the wine just right.
 
 The grapes are often gathered in the same village that the wine will be sold in. This often gives wine from that village area a distinctive colour and taste. For instance, the wine from the village of Makrades, high on the mountainside above Palaiokastritsa, is a very dark red, with a wonderful fruity flavour with a distinct, but soft, aftertaste of sulfur and good olive oil! It is a delicious dessert wine, often quite sweet. Retsina is a white wine, which is stored in wooden casks to mature. The resin in the wood gives the Retsina a distinctive flavour, not unlike a slight taste of linseed oil. It is a very potent wine, but very good when it is sipped. It is always served chilled in the summer. White wines on the island tend to be on the dry side, and rose wine, although available, is much less popular. There is one called Mavro Daphne (which is named after the type of grape used in its making) which tastes like very good port!
 
 Before you decide to taste wines from many areas on your travels around the island, it is worth noting that the alcohol content of the local wines is often as high as seventeen percent proof! It is rare to get a headache from them though, even the heavy red wines, as no colouring, chemicals, flavourings or preservatives are added to them as they are made. The grapes are naturally very high in grape sugars, and they ferment naturally in the huge barrels in the sun without any yeast or chemicals being added to them. The grapes are not crushed by foot in the barrel, they are usually put into an electronic grape masher or press in Corfu. All that is in the barrel is usually crushed grapes and spring water. After the first fermentation the liquid is seperated from the remains of the grapes (the must). This liquid will be strained and put into another barrel to ferment again. The must is usually collected by lorry, and may be made into Tsipero, a fiery distilled liquid which is almost pure alcohol. This is highly prized as a cure for flu and colds, when it is drunk as a shot, or made into a lethal hot toddy with honey and hot water. If you are drinking this to cure the flu it is best to drink it while you are already in bed! Some of the older villagers swear by it as a remedy for arthritis, rubbed onto the affected joints, or it may be rubbed onto a sore throat or chest if you have an infection. Many villagers keep a bottle in the first aid cupboard for emergencies.
 
 Janet Darbey 2005
 
 About the author:
 
 Janet Darbey is a a freelance published writer for both magazines and websites. Why not check out her new travel website at www.TalkingTravel.blogspot.com. Contact her for more information about her latest articles and upcoming books!