The Wine Institute and Vine Institute are two related organizations based in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, under the aegis of the country's Ministry of Agriculture. They are devoted to researching Greek wine

Greek wine

Greece is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. The earliest evidence of Greek wine has been dated to 6,500 years ago where wine was produced on a household or communal basis. In ancient times, as trade in wine became extensive, it was transported from end to end of the...

 and to preserving and improving the country's winemaking.

The Wine Institute was founded in 1937, but was largely inactive until the 1960s, when it was involved in writing the first drafts of Greece's wine legislation. Since then, the Wine Institute has been primarily concerned with identifying and preserving indigenous grape varieties and strains of yeast, particularly rare ones.

The Vine Institute meanwhile has focused on studying the effects of different promising combinations of vines and terroir

Terroir

Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...

, in order to provide a resource of information for Greek winemakers.