Editorials

Vinous Treasure Island

By wine journal writer Patrick Schmitt

With an abundance of rare, indigenous grape varieties, favourable climate, and eclectic range of terroirs, combined with modern viticultural methods, Cyprus can compete in the global wine-producing marketplace.

Cyprus ticks all the boxes in an age when wine drinkers are looking for authenticity and a sense of discovery, but not at the expense of accessibility.

With evidence of winemaking on the Mediterranean island as far back as 5,500 years, a rich choice of rare, indigenous grape varieties, and a landscape engineered to accommodate the 2.5 million tourists that flock to its shores each year, it is quickly apparent Cyprus can meet the key desires of today’s consumer.

Its wine industry, once rightly described as antiquated, is fast-modernising, allowing producers to capture the flavours of grapes grown on an island with a large and eclectic range of terroirs. A winemaking revolution has been led by a core of energetic small-scale producers, encouraged by an emerging domestic demand for high quality products, as well as a tourist keen to experiment. The island’s largest wineries have swiftly followed, improving their output in an attempt to compete at home and in world markets. Accession to the EU has also acted as a catalyst for change, ensuring international quality criteria are met, appellation of origin laws and boundaries set, and subsidies allocated to winery improvements, not sheer weight of grapes.

In short, a definite qualitative vinous direction is emerging for Cyprus. The country is clear on what styles of wines it can best produce, which varieties it should use, where it should plant, and how it should promote. In particular, wine routes have now been mapped, incorporating a growing number of increasingly elaborate cellar door operations, including shops, museums, restaurants and even hotels. All that’s needed is international recognition for its leading wine styles and top producers.

And when it comes to styles, certain vinous strengths are clearly apparent. Firstly, there is no doubt Cyprus has the climate to produce world class sweet wines. Its most famous product and export, Commandaria, is testament to this, but so too are the island’s rapidly proliferating sweet Muscats. Then there’s rosé. Cyprus appears highly adept at producing richly coloured and flavoured rosés from a range of varieties, including indigenous ones such as Maratheftiko, and even the widely planted Mavro.

Certainly when it comes to native grapes, the country has identified those with the greatest quality potential, white and red, and is growing plantings, ensuring there is a real sense of place to the wines produced.

International varieties also flourish in Cyprus, which in places has near perfect viticultural conditions. In particular, comparisons with those in the southern Rhone supports the success winemakers are having with varietals from this French region, for instance Syrah, Grenache and Mouvedre. When it comes to whites alone, certain winemakers are soon to trial the Rhone’s Viognier, but already, the local Xynisteri grape produces refreshing medium-bodied wines on its own or blended with varieties such as Semillion, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chardonnay. And the latter grape, barrel-aged, can produce wines of global appeal.

Overall, replanting and modern machinery coupled with a new generation of enthusiastic and internationally-trained oenologists are ensuring the increasing production of approachable and complex wines. Crucially, these still have a clear sense of place achieved from unique viticultural conditions and the blending of the international with the indigenous.

Future developments will no doubt focus on viticultural advancements such as clonal selection, but for now, modern winemaking methods are ensuring Cyprus is well placed to compete on the global marketplace, and with a clear point of difference both in terms of style and story.