Excavations near Erimi in the Vasilikos Valley have turned up wine presses dating back roughly 5,500 years, making Cyprus one of the Mediterranean’s earliest wine cultures.

Commandaria, made from sun-dried Xynisteri and Mavro grapes, is the world’s oldest wine appellation still produced under a continuous name — documented since the Crusader era but rooted in a tradition far older.

Wine Today

Cyprus has never had phylloxera — the vine louse that devastated European viticulture from the late 1800s — so many of its vineyards are ungrafted, and some are genuinely old. For most of the 20th century, though, the island’s wine industry existed mainly to supply cheap bulk wine and sherry-style base to Britain and the Soviet bloc; when that trade collapsed after 1990, it forced a quality reset the industry is still working through.

Much of the credit for Cyprus’s varietal recovery — Maratheftiko, Yiannoudi and others — traces to one man, the late Akis Zambartas, who identified and propagated varieties that had been assumed lost. Vineyards today sit mostly in the Troodos foothills, often between 600 and 1,500 meters, among the highest in Europe.

Native grapes

Red

• Mavro [B] — Literally “black.” The most planted red on the island and one of the oldest continuously cultivated vines anywhere — in the 1960s Mavro and Xynisteri alone covered 79% and 19% respectively of the total area under cultivation. High-yielding, with pale-to-medium colour, low acidity and low tannin, giving simple red-cherry fruit. Most of it goes to bulk wine and Commandaria. Old ungrafted bush vines at altitude produce something genuinely interesting — pale, savoury, light — and a few producers now bottle it that way.
• Maratheftiko (Vamvakada) [A] — The island’s serious red. Grown in sparse quantities around the island but mostly in the Pitsilia region, it was rediscovered in the 1980s with the revival of small boutique wineries. The problem with it is botanical: it does not have hermaphrodite flowers like most cultivated varieties and must be co-planted with others to achieve fertilisation, so bunches are frequently affected by millerandage — in practice it is interplanted with Mavro, Xynisteri or Spourtiko. The reward is deep ruby colour, substantial tannin, high acidity, and a dark berry and violet aromatic profile unlike anything else in the eastern Mediterranean. Estimates of its share of plantings vary between roughly 3% and 7% of red vineyard. Exported reliably.
• Ofthalmo [B] — “Eye,” from the round berries. Light-to-medium red with fresh acidity, red cherry and a herbal edge; low tannin. Historically blended with Mavro to lift it, and one of the varieties rescued relatively recently. A handful of varietal bottlings exist.
• Lefkada [B] — Very deep colour and formidable tannin and acidity — used in small proportions to give backbone to Mavro and Maratheftiko. Its status as “Cypriot” is debatable: it appears to be the same variety as, or very close to, Vertzami from the Greek island of Lefkada, which would make it a historic import rather than a native. Zambartas has championed it as a varietal wine, where it needs malolactic fermentation and careful oak to be approachable.
• Yiannoudi [B] — “Little John,” so named because the vine was rediscovered in a garden belonging to a man of that name. Effectively lost until about fifteen years ago; it has around 30 hectares planted. Thick-skinned, giving deep colour, firm tannin and good acidity, with blackberry and dark cherry over clove, cinnamon and star anise. Vouni Panayia and Zambartas were the first to bottle it varietally. Along with Maratheftiko, the most exciting red on the island.
• Maroucho, Skouro Mavro, Rodhino, Rozoudi [D] — Documented in ampelographic surveys of the island and held in collection plantings. No commercial production.

White

• Xynisteri [A] (also Orange) — The dominant white and the island’s other Commandaria grape. It is the most widespread white variety in Cyprus at roughly 28.5% of plantings, cultivated island-wide but more than half of it in the Paphos region, and produces fresh, light wines of around 11–12% alcohol showing apple, peach, nectarine, citrus and floral notes. Altitude is everything: grown low and warm it is flabby and forgettable; grown at 800–1,200 m in Panagia or Pitsilia it gains real citrus tension and a chamomile-and-stone character. Increasingly seen in skin-contact, lees-aged and lightly oaked versions, which suit its texture well.
• Promara [B] — Recovered and first bottled varietally by Vouni Panayia in the Paphos district. Fuller and more textural than Xynisteri, with stone fruit, honeysuckle and better ageing potential. Small plantings but genuinely commercial, and one of the varieties Cypriot producers themselves rate most highly.
• Spourtiko [B–C] — Thin-skinned and prone to splitting, which is roughly what the name refers to. Very high acidity, low alcohol and a neutral-to-citrus profile. Its most important job is agricultural rather than oenological — it flowers at the same time as Maratheftiko and is planted as a pollinator. A few varietal bottlings exist, generally as fresh, sharp, early-drinking whites.
• Morokanella [B–C] — “Little cinnamon,” a very old but very rare variety from the Paphos region. Rounded, gently perfumed, with white peach dominant and a faint spice note — closer in feel to an Alsace white than to anything else on the island. As of a few years ago only a couple of wineries, Ktima Gerolemo and Aes Ambelis, were producing it.
• Kanella, Flouriko, Michalias, Katomylitiko, Omoio [D] — The remainder of the recovered germplasm. Zambartas, who has worked through this material, judges that of the rediscovered varieties five hold real promise — Lefkada, Maratheftiko, Yiannoudi, Promara and Morokanella — and that the rest need further research. Expect no bottles.

Orange & Skin-Contact

• Xynisteri [A] — The dominant white and the island’s other Commandaria grape. It is the most widespread white variety in Cyprus at roughly 28.5% of plantings, cultivated island-wide but more than half of it in the Paphos region, and produces fresh, light wines of around 11–12% alcohol showing apple, peach, nectarine, citrus and floral notes. Altitude is everything: grown low and warm it is flabby and forgettable; grown at 800–1,200 m in Panagia or Pitsilia it gains real citrus tension and a chamomile-and-stone character. Increasingly seen in skin-contact, lees-aged and lightly oaked versions, which suit its texture well.

← Back to all countries