DITHYRAMVOS 25 YEARS ANNIVERSARY BOTTLE

A wine as special as our 25th anniversary release needs a name to aptly convey its beauty and vibrancy. We could think of no other name more fitting than Dithyramb, an epithet for the Greek God of wine and revelry, Dionysus. Dithyramb is also the name of the choral song that was traditionally sung in worship of the God, a kind of ecstatic revelry produced by the singers, who were described by the ancient poet Archilochos as being “wit-struck by the thunderbolt of wine.”

Dithyramb is sure to leave you “wit-struck” as well! A beautiful aged Begleri wine, it was harvested in the summer of 2002 and was pressed by foot in our traditional granite press. It also underwent an open air fermentation for 30 days with native yeasts, and is unfiltered and unfined with no added sulfites. We feel that this wine especially captures the essence of Ikaria, as Begleri is indigenous only to our island, and our homage to Dionysus is rooted in the ancient island mythology.

Rumored to have housed the God after his birth, a cave in the Drakanum region of the island undertook the name Iero, or ‘holy altar,’ in reference to the spiritual significance of the area. An active cult of Dionysus once populated our island, and there are many relics in reverence of the God that have been unearthed from ancient times. We can imagine that the summer air was once filled with songs of the dithyramb, and we feel honored to revive the practice this very summer with our newest wine release. Each bottle has been hand painted by a local Ikarian artist depicting the God.