The retaking of the Iberian peninsula by the Christians led to the establishment of the sea route from Italy to northern Europe through the Strait of Gibraltar.
In the second decade of the 14th century, the Venetians organised convoys of four to five ships to Flanders and England, where sweet Mediterranean wines became famous.
The conquest of Crete by the Ottomans in 1669 gradually limited the supply of sweet wines to the northern European market. The gap in the market was filled by the sweet malvasia wines from Madeira.
Wine transport was combined with convoys from Syria and Egypt, which stopped at Heraklion (Candia) to load products for Venice, Genoa, Marseilles, etc.
From there, wine was transported over land to Flanders, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux.
Ships crossed the Bosporus and reached the ports of the Danube, and from there the cargo/wines were transferred to Lviv. This city was a product distribution hub in eastern and central Europe. A study of the city’s Registry covering a period of 80 years in the 16th and 17th centuries, indicates that 32 Greeks settled there.
The products they traded included products from Crete, mainly wine. One of them, Konstantinos Korniachtos, a merchant from Heraklion, became prominent and his home has housed the Historical Museum of Lviv for about 120 years.