The first reference to Cypriot wine is in the Bible. In Solomon’s “Song of Songs” Chapter 1, Verse 14 “My beloved in unto me as a cluster of Cyprus in the vineyards of Engadi”.

The wines were praised by Dionysos, worshippers of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love celebrated with ‘Cyprus Nama” allegedly the oldest wine known in history.

King Richard the Lionheart, captured the island in 1191 and liked the wines, In the same year he sold the island to the Knights Templar, who set up their headquarters or Grand Commanderia in the district where ever since the best known Cyprus wine Commaderia has come from ever since.  Cyprus wine was first introduced to England by King Richard in the same year, 1191.

In 1363 King Peter of Cyprus visited England, where the Lord Mayor held a banquet at Vintners Hall. The mayor also asked King Edward 111, King David of Scotland, King John of France and King Waldemar of Denmark. The feast of the five kings used Commanderia to toast.  Sometime later Queen Elizabeth 1 granted Sir Walter Raleigh the sole agency for Cyprus wines.

For the next 300 years the island was under Turkish rule, who did as many governments do today they put a tax one wine. Thus for these economic reasons the wine industry fell into disrepair.

Britain administered the island from 1878 – 1960 during that time a sherry style wine was produced. This was very popular. In fact Cyprus is the fifth or was until recently, largest supplier of wines to the British market.

In 1954, 75 new varieties of vine were introduced to the island Although there are only four main producers today, 10,000 families are involved in viticulture today.

Since the late sixties there has been strict control of the whole industry via a government body. This body has put in a lot of research which shows today in the improvement of quality in the wines.
Until recently we have only come across them on holiday and in local Cypriot restaurants. Now they are available in some supermarkets.

The wines have improved dramatically since I tasted Cypriot wines ten or so years ago. Now some are well worth while. Try them before you go on holiday to Cyprus. This will give you a benchmark. Experiment with new flavours and tastes. If you don’t like a wine you have bought then why not use it in cooking.

Problems with quality seem to arise because many of the grapes are harvested away from the winery and travel by road in open trucks. The grapes are inclined to spoil under these hot conditions.

There are now numbers of small wineries which are privately owned. The production is small that are not exported — yet.