Cypriot wine
The Cypriot wine industry ranks 50th in the world in terms of total production quantity (10,302 tonnes),[1] and much higher on a per-capita basis.
The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Cypriot economy through cultivation, production, employment, export and tourism.
Wine was being traded at least as early as 2300 BC, the date of a shipwreck (similar to the Kyrenia ship) carrying over 2,500 amphorae, discovered in 1999.
Dr. Porphyrios Dikaios, a major figure in Cypriot archaeology and once curator of the Cyprus Museum, had carried out excavations on the outskirts of Erimi village between 1932 and 1935.
In 2005, well after Dr Dikaios' death, the chemical signatures of 18 of these were examined by a team of Italian archaeologists led by Maria-Rosaria Belgiorno.
Indicative are reports written mainly by French[14] and British travelers of the time; Cyrus Redding writes in 1851:the vine grower of Cyprus hides from his neighbour the amount of his vintage, and always buries part of his produce for concealment; the exactions of the government are so great, that his profit upon what he allows to be seen is too little to remunerate him for his loss in time and labour.
[17] The Chaplin family (at Per Pedhi) was Hadjipavlou's main competitor until the arrival of KEO a company formed by a group of prominent local businessmen.
[19] These "big four" wine producers (a term widely used to refer to KEO, ETKO, SODAP and LOEL[20]) dominated the industry scene and survive to date.
[21] As a consequence, demand for Cyprus grapes and wines coupled to the relatively high prices offered resulted in a mini boom for the industry.
The fortified wine market also began to shrink as a whole due to a change in consumer taste and as a result Cyprus sherry sales in the UK fell from their peak in the early 1970s by some 65 percent by the mid-1980s.
[26] Indicative of the industry's mass production tactics comes in a report by The Times in 1968 commenting on "the end of an underwater pipeline off the coast of Limassol linking to tankers taking on not gas or oil but wine – 100 tons an hour of it – destined for about 40 countries throughout the world.
"[27] In response to the challenges faced by the industry the Cyprus vine-products commission began efforts to overhaul the sector in order to help it survive under the new circumstances.
Maratheftiko today forms part of ancient red grape varietals vinified by most wineries wanting to exhibit the singularity of quality wine in Cyprus.
Photographic material and audiovisual presentations, as well as ancient jars, crocks, medieval pots, old documents and instruments can be found relating to the history of wine in Cyprus.
[citation needed] For Turkish Cypriots, the first commercial wine projects began with research in the 1990s,[39] with Chateau St Hilarion as a notable winery based in the Village of Gećitköy to the west of Lapithos.
