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Commandaria

"the wine of Kings and the King of wines"

 by Alessia Rizzato

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

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 The current name of Commandaria was given much later and it goes back to the 12th century, during the Middle Ages, when Commandaria started to be exported to all the civilized countries of Europe to be placed on the tables of kings and rulers in royal and official banquets, becoming quickly the“KING OF WINES” beloved by the aristocracy.

According to the legend, it is believed that this particular appellation was given to the sweet Cypriot wine by the great king of England Richard the Lion Heart.  As it is widely known in 1191 king Richard departed on the third crusade,but during his journey to the Holy Land a storm dispersed its great fleet. Arriving in Crete, he discovered that the ship, on which his sister Giovanna and his betrothed Berengaria of Navarre were, was anchored on the southern coast of Cyprus and so after having landed in the port of Limassol he took advantage of this opportunity to conquer the island. Before leaving Cyprus to continue his crusade, Richard decided to celebrate his marriage with Berengaria of Navarra, and it was precisely on this occasion that the king discovered the local sweet red wine, appreciating it to the point of proclaiming it “THE KING OF WINES and THE WINE OF KINGS”. The following year, in 1192, Richard sold the island to the templar knights and the knights of St. Johns that soon after sold it to Guy the Lusignan. However, they kept a large feudal estate on the southern side of the island near Limassol known as la GRANDE COMMANDARIE. In this estate the knights didn’t only establish their headquarters, but they also cultivated vines and learnt how to produce the sweet local wine. For this reason,when they started to export it to the royal courts of Europe it was referred to as the wine of the Commandaria region, or simply Commandaria, from the name of the place where it was produced.

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From this moment on, Commandaria’s fame started to grow more and more over time. In the 13th century Philip August, king of France, organized the first wine tasting competition in history.  Thanks to the Norman poet Hendry D’Andeli that in 1224 recorded the event in his poem called “La Battaille des Vins” (the Battle of wines), we know that the competition included wines from all over Europe and that it was won by a sweet wine from Cyprus that almost certainly was Commandaria. On this occasion Commandaria was also awarded with the honorary title of “The Apostle of wines”, becoming officially the main wine of Christendom and Holy Communion.

 

“The king who was noble and wine asked his messengers to bring him the best wines. First, he asked for the wines of Cyprus. The king named the best wines and gave each one a prize. He called the wine of Cyprus the Apostle who shines like a true star”.

                                                                                                                                                Hendry D’ Andeli

 

Another legend says that Commandaria was the reason why Cyprus was conquered by the Ottoman sultan Selim II. In 1571, a Jewish wine merchant of Portugal gave to the sultan samples of Commandaria which pleased him so greatly that he ordered to his commander in chief Lala Mustafa to capture Cyprus because: “within this island there is a treasure which only the king of kings is worthy of possessing”. That treasure was precisely Commandaria. However, during the Ottoman occupation of the island the production and the export of Commandaria decreased considerably because of some serious problems mainly related to the imposition of heavy taxes on trade and other desserts wines that tried to imitate the unique taste of the sweet wine of Cyprus, begun to gain ground throughout Europe.

 

Fortunately, during the British domination, Commandaria began to be produced again and in abundance and from that moment its reputation as one of the best sweet wines of the world, symbol of Cypriot history and tradition, has never disappeared  and today as it was in ancient time still holds firmly the title of KING of wines that no one seems to be able to dethrone.

 

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PRODUCTION

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The current method of making Commandaria is almost identical to the one that was in use centuries ago. To confirm this evidence, we can refer once again to the testimony of the Greek poet Hesiod that, as mentioned above, in his didactic poem “work and days”, refers not only to this sweet Cypriot wine but also describes its production from sun-dried grapes:

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“Leave the grapes ten days to the sun, and then 10 night and then 5 days under shadows and eight days in the pot”

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A similar process is presented by Etienne de Lusignan in his work “Description of the island of Cyprus” written in 1580 where the scholar not only affirms that Commandaria is “one of the best wines in the world” but regarding the method of production he also says:

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“ [...]grapes are ripe in July but the harvest  is in September. They lay the grapes on the roofs of their houses and they leave them in the sun for three days so that the heat removes all the water contained. Then they transport the grapes to the presses, take away the seeds and the cluster before fermentation”

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Another interesting testimony comes to us from the English naturalist and writer Samuel Backer that during his visit to Cyprus in 1879sawdirectly natives involved in the various phases of the production of the local sweet wine:

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“The Commandaria 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 shrivelling in the skin and the stalks have partially dried. They are then pressed [...]

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All the sources mentioned above allow us to state that the preparation of Commandaria, is a very old lesson handed down from generation to generation, that currently has been provided with strict and specific regulations.

First of all, in order to make Commandaria, there are only two indigenous local grape varieties that can be used: the red Mavro and the white Xynistery.  The grapes are usually picked overripe (and thus by nature very rich in sugar) and then dried in the sun for one or two weeks before the vinification to further increase the content of sugar and concentrate the flavour. Subsequently, the dried grapes are pressed in the traditional presses and the juice obtained is put in tanks or earthenware jars to undergo a slow process of fermentation that usually lasts 2-3 months. Finally, when fermentation is complete the wine is aged in oak barrels at least for two years.

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Another important rule that has to be accomplished in order to make Commandaria is that since it is the only Cypriot wine produced from grapes grown in  strictly controlled “appellation of origin” areas, the whole process described above until the fermentation  has to mandatorily take place in one of the 14 designated villages[2] situated in the so called “Commandaria Region “of Cyprus located on  the south foothills of the Troodos Mountains within the Limassol district.

 

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FEATURES, FLAVOUR AND TASTE OF COMMANDARIA

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  • COLOUR:   The Commandaria range of colours goes from amber/dark gold to brown with red highlights but it can vary depending on the proportions of the two varieties of grapes used. Since the ratio isn’t fix a light amber colour means generally that more Xynisteri has been used, while a darkerbrown means that the percentage of red Mavro is greater.
     

  • AROMA AND TASTE: The taste of Commandaria is characterized by a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity. The “primary” aroma is the one of raisin and honey, but during the process of fermentation some aromas can be altered and new aromas (the so called “secondary” ones) can take their place. The aromatic richness and bouquet of Commandaria is very impressive and it can change depending on many factors like the type of the vine, the soil of the vineyard but also the composition and the aging in oak barrels play a role in the final fragrance the wine will have. One can also detect fruit flavours such as dry figs, carob or white hawthorn, but also oak, coffee, caramel or a vanilla aroma. Obviously, even if there is no Commandaria that can simultaneously show all these aromas,  because as explained above many of the flavours found in a Commandaria can appear during the first years and then are lost or replaced by others, the ones that are involved are perfectly mixed and balanced together, giving thus to the wine its characteristic and unique flavour

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[1] Excavations that have been conducted on various archaeological sites of the island, especially in Erimi, have been fundamental not only to demonstrate that wine was already produced on the island 6500 years ago, but the analysis of the organic remains present in the pottery and in the amphorae found hasalso revealed the presence of sweet wine that could probably be the ancestor of Commandaria.
[2] Agios Georgios, Doros, Laneia, Agios Mamas, Kapileio, Zoopigi, KaloChorio, AgiosPavlos,AgiosKostantinos, Louvaras, Gerasa, Pasiou, Monagri and Silikou
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REFERENCES:

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Commandaria (κουμανδαρία),a naturally sweet dessert wine produced in the so called “Commandaria region” of Cyprus, represents one of the most traditional and well-known Cypriot wines with a long history behind it, so much so that it is believed to be the oldest named wine in the world still produced today.

As it has been proved by both archaeological findings and historical literary sources, the production of a sweet wine, considered by most scholars the precursor of Commandaria, is attested in Cyprus since the ancient times [1].  Although many ancient poets and historians such as Homer, Plinio and Seneca celebrated this particular wine in their works describing it as one of the main riches of the island, it was only the Greek poet Hesiod that, in his poem “Works and days” written in the 8th century b.C. , named it for the first time the “Cypriot Nama”.  According to some historians the word “Nama” could be a synonym of“manna” that was the nectar of gods, but another possible interpretation for this name is that it could derive from the Greek word “mana” that means mother. This last hypothesis could be the most probable, especially if we take into consideration the method that was commonly used by the ancients to produce wine. In this process in fact, the wine was vinified in large clay pots and when these were emptied, a little bit of wine was always left at the bottom of the clay pot. When the new wine was added to the pot the remnant of the previous one contributed to the vinification so that the old wine became the “MOTHER” of the new.

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