Ancient Greece and wine importance. Records inscribed on tablets in Linear B include details of wine, vineyards and wine merchants, as well as an early allusion to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Greeks embedded the arrival of winemaking culture in the mythologies of Dionysus and the cultural hero Aristaeus. Early remnants of amphoras show that the Mycenaeans actively traded wine throughout the ancient world in places such as Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Sicily and southern Italy. As the Greek city-states established colonies throughout the Mediterranean, the settlers brought grapevines with them and were active in cultivating the wild vines they encountered. Sicily and southern
Ancient Greece and wine of using suckering and plant cuttings for new vineyard plantings. The Greeks also employed vine training with stacked plants for easier cultivation and harvesting, rather than let the grapevines grow untrained in bushes or up trees. While ampelographers have been unable to identify the exact ancestry of any current "Vitis vinifera" grape variety among those grown by the ancient Greeks, several—e.g. Aglianico (also known as "Helleniko"), Grechetto, and Trebbiano (also known as "Greco")—have distinct Greek heritage. Not all Greek viticulture techniques were widely adopted by other wine regions. Some Greek vineyards used mysticism to ward off disease and bad weather.