In 2016 on holiday in Cyprus I stumbled upon the Cyprus wine road and was introduced to Cypriot wine.
(c) Ramblingwino
Did you know that the oldest named wine still in production is from Cyprus? Commandaria dates back to the crusades and the 12th century! It was named by the Knights Templar. How cool is that?! Even more impressive is that wine making goes back to 2000 BC. Cyprus also was lucky enough to escape the phylloxera epidemic of the 19th century, so many of their grapes are still grown on European and not American rootstock.
Commandaria is a dessert wine made from two indigenous grape varieties; Xynisteri and Mavro. Only 14 villages in Cyprus are allowed to make the wine. Mavro is a very dark blue grape and is the main indigienous red. Other main red varieties grown are Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon. Xynisteri is a white grape that is the main white wine variety on the island.
The dessert wine is very sweet and high in alcohol (15-20%). It has a deep amber hue that gets darker with age. Often in the making of the wine the grapes are dried on rooftops to increase the sugar concentration. The wines are more often then not, fortified.
