how about a 5000 year old wine?
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 6:40 am
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...)
part of the beautiful garden at Ayia Mavra winery.
Ioannis Ioannidou in the cellar.
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...)
- garden.png (1.71 MiB) Viewed 2895 times
- portrait.png (1.02 MiB) Viewed 2895 times
- bottles.png (975.7 KiB) Viewed 2895 times
