This paper investigates the fate of Greek wine in England in the late Middle Ages
and the early modern period. It will be explored how Cretan wine was challenged by
Spanish and Atlantic wines and eventually even replaced after the Ottoman conquest
of Crete. The hypothesis is that the histories of Cretan, Spanish, Atlantic and Port
wines are entangled for they all catered to a fairly stable consumer's taste for sweet
wine. I will argue that interventions by political authorities, in the form of privileges,
free trade areas, customs and monopolies mattered in this process because they
changed incentive structures. For even if actors do not comply with regulations, they
still have to cope with them; using opportunities and avoiding costs, which from the
legislators' perspective might often be fraud.