| Greek sweet wines from Candia became the | | | | ships-the Matthew Gonson and the Holy Cross |
| ultimate luxury in the 16th century. Among | | | | -returned to Southampton after a yearlong |
| aristocrats and the affluent in Moscow, London, | | | | voyage to Chios and Crete. The casks on board, |
| Constantinople (renamed Istanbul in 1453), Seville, | | | | full of olive oil and wine, had been damaged during |
| Krakow, Hamburg, Marseilles, Naples and Venice, | | | | the passage and it became clear that the wine |
| Cretan Malvasia was recommended for its | | | | could not be unloaded unless it was transferred to |
| soothing, as well as invigorating, properties. | | | | new casks. During the transfer, the red Malmsey |
| Travellers to Crete produced an abundance of | | | | was discovered to be far better than any wine |
| detailed descriptions about how wine was | | | | that had yet reached England. As the Duke of |
| made-by boiling the must, partly sun-drying the | | | | Candia, Zuanne Sagredo, observed 70 years later, |
| grapes or blending old and new wine. There is also | | | | the English quickly developed a special preference |
| information about wine consumption on the | | | | for Cretan red wines. |
| island-Cretan women, it was noted, drank heavily. | | | | Italian cities controlled the trade of Mediterranean |
| In 1600, the French traveller Henri de Villamont | | | | goods to England again -including wine-from 1550 |
| reported that Cretan wines fell into two | | | | until the 1571 naval Battle of Lepanto. Ottoman |
| categories: the slightly acidic wines drunk by the | | | | forces had occupied Malmsey's home port of |
| locals, and sweet wines (vini dolci) made for | | | | Monemvassia (1540), as well as Hios (1566) and |
| export to Italy, France, Germany, the Ottoman | | | | Cyprus (1570), but ships from Ragusa, Venice, |
| Empire, Poland, Russia and England. | | | | Livorno and Genoa continued to trade with |
| Considerable quantities of Aegean wine arrived in | | | | Cephalonia, Zakynthos (Zante to the Venetians) |
| England between 1511 and 1550-Bristol and | | | | and the Cretan port towns of Rethymno and |
| Southampton were in regular commercial contact | | | | Hania. |
| with Crete, Chios and Cyprus. In 1534, two | | | | |