Commandaria

Commandaria is Cyprus's historic sweet wine: an amber dessert wine made from sun-dried Xynisteri (white) and Mavro (red) grapes grown on the southern foothills of the Troodos mountains. The grapes are laid out in the sun to concentrate their sugars before pressing, which gives the wine its richness and deep colour. It is sweet, full and long-lived, a wine to sip slowly after a meal rather than with it.

Its history is long and well documented. Commandaria is widely described as the world's oldest named wine still in production, with a sweet Cypriot wine recorded in antiquity and the name itself dating to the medieval Knights and their estate, the Grand Commandery, near Kolossi Castle outside Limassol. By tradition, King Richard the Lionheart is said to have praised it at his wedding in Limassol during the Crusades. Today Commandaria holds protected designation of origin (PDO) status and can only be made in a defined group of villages in the hills above Limassol.

Where to try it

• At wineries and tasting rooms in the Commandaria villages near Limassol.
• On wine-route stops around Omodos village and the southern Troodos slopes.
• As a dessert pour at traditional tavernas across the island.

Commandaria is sweet and quite strong, so it is served in small measures, often with dried fruit, nuts or hard cheese. A visit to the wine country pairs naturally with a drive through the southern Troodos and a stop at a village winery, and the historic Ancient Kourion and Kolossi area sit on the same side of Limassol. A bottle is also one of the more distinctive Cypriot things to take home.