In early antiquity, some time during the 10th or 9th century B.C., when collective historical memory was still woven with tradition and mythology, the argonaut hero Ancaios ruled on the island of Samos. Among the numerous, mainly financial, reforms that he introduced to the island's farming and stock - breeding population was the cultivation of the vine. Samos being extremely mountainous, the farmers had to work hard before they were to see their first plants bear fruit. It is said that one of Ancaios' slaves uttered the curse, " May Ancaios not live long enough to taste the wine of this harvest ". The king, having heard this, said nothing at the time.

In due course, the long awaited day arrived when Ancaios was to taste his first wine. He asked for the blasphemous slave to be brought before him and said : " You see, your curse was in vain ". To this, the slave replied : " A lot could happen, my Lord, before the cup in your hand reaches your lips ". At that moment news came that a wild boar was ravaging the king's vineyard, where upon Ancaios in his taste to slay the beast was mortally wounded, thus perishing before he could taste his new wine.

The ancient Greeks who loved to observe and study nature often praised the beneficial climate and the fertile soil of Samos. Such authors as Hippocrates, Galen, Theophrastus, Plinius, Meleager, Menander and others, mention that this rich soil produced an immense variety of products used diversly in pharmaceuticals, ophthalmology, ceramics, painting gold artifacts and in building. Aethlius, exaggerating no doubt, tells us that the vines, figs and rose trees of Samos bore fruit twice a year.

Although, many things have changed since ancient times the type of vine mentioned by the ancient grammarian Hesychius in his Lexicon as " Samian Vine " still remains the same owing to Samos' favourable climate and to the extraordinary qualities of its earth. Thus viniculture and wine production permanently marked the island's economy and history linking the cultivator to this sensitive and demanding plant which requires great care and toil in order to produce the unique, sweet flavoured, Samian wine known as " moschato ".

Although during the Byzantine era Samos was a maritime stop over for the supply of vessels bound for Asia Minor and the Middle East, yet we possess but scanty information, mainly from travellers such as the divine Willibald who on his way to Jerusalem called on the island in 741.

Pirates proved a scourge for the island's commercial transactions whilst the appearance of the Ottoman fleet prompted the Samiotes to abandon their homes in 1463. Only in 1562 were they able to return, the Sultan having granted them certain privileges which resulted in the revival of the island's economy. The commercial interests of the European powers in the Aegean were so important that France, Britain, Holland and Germany established consulates, or vice consulates, initially at Chora and Karlovasi and later at Vathy. The French traveller Tournefort notes that in 1700 the production of the " moschato " was estimated at 3.000 barrels.

In his anual specially compiled for merchants and navigators, in 1787, the German traveller Frieseman records : " Samos : 12.000 inhabitants, only three Turkish houses. One belonging to the judge ; another to the governor at Chora and the third to the governor's representative at Karlovasi where the French consulate is also located ...

The production of moschato wine is estimated at 3.000 barrels annually ".

The War of Independance of 1821, fought with special vehemence in Samos, aimend at overthrowing the Turkish yoke as well as abolishing the power of the few. Thus the ideas of the " Karmanioles " influenced by the principles of the French Revolution and by the proclamations of Rigas Pherraios, took root. With popular Councils and elected representatives and under the guidance of the political and military leader Lycurgos Logothetis, Samos experienced a few years of revolutionary rule unique in Greece. Owing however, to international interests and pressure from the Ottoman Empire this status was suspended.

In 1833 Samos was once again brought under the Porte's authority as an independent principality and remained thus until 1912. The rulers, known as " Hegemons ", were all Christian Orthodox and most of them of Greek origin. They usually supported the great landowners, merchants and industrialists, who controled the wine, the grain and the tobacco trades, as well as the tannery industry.

Samos supplied the markets of both East and West. Merchant vessels, laden with wine, reached as far north as Amsterdam. The Roman Catholic Church conceded to Samos the privilege of preparing the wine used in the Holy Eucharist and in Sweden, a child when asked where Greece is, replied : " Near Samos ".

Marketed under French patents after 1890, Samian wines acquired international reputation. Commerce flouriched and the wine merchants greatly increased their capital, gaining complete control of the production. The selling price of the wine in the local and foreing markets was inversely proportional to the price paid to the peasants. In desperation the vine producers not only cultivated their vineyards for a mere pittance but they also had to borrow money from the merchants, handing them in exchange their most productive vineyards. They lived in permanent uncertainty since the merchants arbitarily fixed the price and time of delivery of the products. A serious cleavage between the two classes came about.

In 1933, the northern vine - growing villages, rebelled. The necessity to fight for the creation of a cooperative was recognized by all the vine growers. In 1934, the farmers constituted a council which demanded that the Greek government pass a special bill through parliament for the creation of a vine growers' cooperative. The government had no choice. It promulgated the law stipulating the compulsory participation of all producers in twenty six local cooperatives to be created, in order to form the Union of Wine Producing Cooperatives of Samos. Furious, the merchants boycotted the production for about a year. This however did not prevent the Union from winning the final battle.