Commandaria
The wine has a long history, said to date back to the time of the ancient Greeks, when it was a popular drink at festivals.
The word Commanderie referred to the military headquarters whilst Grande helped distinguish it from two smaller such command posts on the island, one close to Paphos (Phoenix) and another near Kyrenia (Templos).
[15][16] The grapes are left to overripe on the vine and when sugar content reaches acceptable levels (corresponding to high must weight) they are harvested.
Commandaria, by law, is aged for at least two years in Oak Barrels but this can take place outside the above-designated area within Cyprus under strict control and under the conditions laid down in Cypriot legislation.
In his poem Works and Days, written in the 7th century BC, Hesiod, writes: Forget not next the ripen'd Grapes to lay, Ten Nights in Air, nor take them in by Day; Five more remember, e're the Wine is made, To let them ly, to mellow in the Shade; And in the sixth briskly yourself employ, To cask the Gift of Bacchus, Sire of Joy.
"[20]Pliny the Elder describes similar methods employed by the Greeks for making sweet wines, The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun...It is made by drying grapes in the sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place upon hurdles, some seven Feet from the ground, care being taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour.
The liquor known as melitites is also one of the sweet wines [21] In his account, Samuel Baker describes the production in 1879 ...the commanderia grapes are collected and spread upon the flat mud-plastered roofs of the native houses and are exposed for several days until they show symptoms of shriveling in the skin, and the stalks have partially dried: they are then pressed……" He claims that the evolution of this method was more out of necessity than choice..… "It has been imagined by some travellers that the grapes are purposely dried before pressing; on the other hand, I have been assured by the inhabitants that their only reason for heaping and exposing their crop upon the house-tops is the danger of leaving it to ripen in the vineyard.
None of the plots are fenced, and before the grapes are sufficiently ripe for pressing they are stolen in large quantities, or destroyed by cattle, goats, mules, and every stray animal that is attracted to the fields….
[10] Official figures released by Cyprus’ Vines Products Commission show that there is a generally increasing trend in the volumes produced.
The designated area has assumed the name of the Commandaria Region and is located on the south-facing slopes of the Troödos Mountains at an altitude of 500-900m within the Limassol District.
