Cyprus

The Commandaria technical file takes the wine's name from the Grande Commanderie of the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, who settled in Cyprus and held much of the Limassol district, and calls Commandaria the oldest name of origin. It says the wine is still made in the way Hesiod described in Works and Days: grapes left ten days and nights in the sun, five days in the shade and eight days in vessels. That continuity is the file's claim, not documented practice. Between 1920 and 1925, with the rise of the cooperative movement in Cyprus, production passed to cooperative wineries. The file says Xynisteri and Mavro have grown in the area since ancient times and that producers fixed maximum yields themselves, written into the rules in 1990. The Cypriot PDOs and PGIs have been protected in the EU since 2006.

The Department of Agriculture lists seven PDOs: Commandaria, Krasochoria Lemesou with its Afames and Laona subzones, Pitsilia, Vouni Panagias – Ambelitis and Laona Akama, on the Troodos slopes and in the hills of Limassol and Paphos. It also lists four PGIs named after the districts of Lefkosia, Lemesos, Larnaka and Pafos. The Commandaria area lies north of Limassol, with vineyards at 400–900 m. In the west, semi-mountainous relief at 400–700 m with average slopes of 10–30° carries poor calcareous soils; in the east, an extension of the Troodos range has volcanic, stony slopes of more than 30° reaching 900 m, terraced for planting. Summers are hot and dry, winters mild to cold above 800 m. For 1991–2005 the file gives a mean daily temperature of 17.7 °C (24.3–27 °C in summer, 8.9–10.5 °C in winter), 8.4 hours of sun a day and about 650 mm of rain, mainly from December to March.

The Commandaria technical file describes the wine as deep and intensely coloured, with a strong bouquet of concentrated, intense aromas, great complexity, a full and rich body balanced by good acidity, and a long finish. Its long-term averages are 14.5% alcohol, about 180 g/l of reducing sugars and pH 3.8. The file attributes this character to the soils and climate of the area, the two native varieties and traditional practices that, it says, have stayed unchanged for centuries.

Commandaria is made from Xynisteri and Mavro grown in 14 villages: Agios Georgios, Agios Konstantinos, Agios Mamas, Agios Pavlos, Apsiou, Gerasa, Doros, Zoopigi, Kalo Chorio, Kapileio, Lania, Louvaras, Monagri and Sylikou. At harvest the must needs at least 212 g/l of sugar for Xynisteri and 258 g/l for Mavro, and 390–450 g/l after the grapes have been dried in the sun for about two weeks. Continuous presses are not allowed. The wine must reach at least 10% vol by fermentation before it may be fortified, and must age at least two years in oak barrels. Vines are low goblets at least four years old; the maximum yield is 17 hl/ha or 4,500 kg of grapes per hectare. The other PDOs and PGIs cover dry wines; their variety rules were not read here.