 The process of making raisin wines was described by the Greek poet Hesiod in mainland Greece around 800 BC.Various Mediterranean raisin wines were described in the first century AD by Columella and Pliny the Elder.Pliny uses the Greek term for honey wine for the following raisin wine, "The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun...It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews