how about a 5000 year old wine?

[Bert VD]

or at least, a style of wine that was in production 5000 years ago and still is...

i joined a small wine tour in Cyprus and got to taste the legendary Commandaria wine. it is said to be the oldest type of wine still in production. it's a mix of 2 Cypriot grapes (Xinisteri and Mavri) and after picking them they are dried in the sun to get a much higher sugar concentration. this results in around 15% alcohol and quite a bit of sugar left in the wine. it is aged at least 2 years in oak. (if you see a label with more than 15% alcohol it is fortified)

We visited Ayia Mavri. A very small winery in Koilani in the Troodos mountain area. It is the hobby/passion project of Mrs Yiannoula and Mr Ioannis Ioannidou and started in 1983. They have traditional Commandaria, sweet Mosxatos and use local grapes but they also like to experiment. Most of their wines are single grape but they have some blends, venture to foreign grapes and use grape varieties that were only used for raisins in the past. They also have a sweet Syrah that was the result of a happy accident as Bob Ross would say. The grapes were picked too late because of a vacation trip. It ended up becoming an award winning wine and a permanent part of their portfolio. For the wine production they use modern techniques and the pressing is automated. There is an old press on display but that is just for explaining the process of wine making.

We tasted a nice selection of their wines and while the Commandaria is very close to port (something between tawny and white in my opinion) it is not what i took home. i went for the amazing Mosxatos 2014. a sweet wine made with Muscat of Alexandria. it's made in a similar way by drying the grapes for 10 days before pressing them. it won grand gold medal in the 2016 Cyprus wine competition, gold medal at the French Muscats Du Monde competition in 2017 and top-level gold at Selection Wein.com magazine 2017 in Germany. I was in Cyprus for work and totally unprepared to bring wine home so i could only fit one bottle in my suitcase. i would have liked to get some bottles of the dry rosé as well. there is a lesson to be learned...

Afterwards we had some more wines and Zivania in Omodos, a charming village that is very touristy but still pleasant. In Omodos you can also still see some very big traditional presses where a gigantic wooden lever was used to press down wooden boards on grapes in a basin. And of course some old installations to distill the fermented grape skins and make Zivania. (similar to Grappa, grape Palinka...)

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part of the beautiful garden at Ayia Mavra winery.

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Ioannis Ioannidou in the cellar.

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[Bert VD]

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the line-up of wines we tasted.

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because of strict regulations, the Commandaria wine is kept in a separate part of the cellar that is locked.

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these are the traditional presses and vessels to ferment the wines of Cyprus. almost every house in the Troodos area would have at least one of these to produce wine for their own consumption and sell the rest to one of the 4 big companies they had. Only in the eighties and nineties these small producers would become independant wineries and start making quality wines themselves.

[Bert VD]

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this is one of the big historical presses. in the back of the room is the basin where the grapes would be crushed by the wooden lever as the screw is turned by hand or by a donkey.

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in the same room as the press they would distill the Zivania.

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the view from one of the streets of Omodos. The vineyards are quite a bit 'wilder' than what we see in the Douro. The newer ones are more organized but some of them are very old as they didn't have the Phylloxera epidemic. Vinyards have trees in them, sometimes look abandoned, steep or flat.. there is a lot of variety.

[Andy Velebil]

Just learned something new, thanks for the recap of your visit. And loved the pics!

[Eric Ifune]

How's the Mosxatos compare to a good Moscatel de Setubal?

[Bert VD]

How's the Mosxatos compare to a good Moscatel de Setubal?

i haven't tried Moscatel de Setubal yet

[Mike K.]

How's the Mosxatos compare to a good Moscatel de Setubal?

i haven't tried Moscatel de Setubal yet

They are dangerous. I’m totally hooked.