Cyprus
A mountain-vineyard island with Xynisteri whites, Maratheftiko reds and the historic sweet wine Commandaria.
Cyprus is a Mediterranean island, but its wine map leads inland and uphill. Mountain villages around the Troodos range and the Pafos hinterland support vineyards quite different from a beachside image of the country. Seven touring routes connect wine villages, with altitude providing an important part of the growing environment.
Xynisteri is the principal local white grape, while Mavro and Maratheftiko are important native red names. International varieties also grow on the island. Xynisteri offers a useful introduction to dry Cypriot wine, while Maratheftiko is a route into the island’s more distinctive reds. Neither grape name fixes sweetness or winemaking method.
Commandaria is a separate sweet-wine tradition, made from sun-dried local grapes in a defined group of villages. It should not stand in for all Cypriot wine. Dry whites and reds, sweet wines and the grape spirit Zivania answer different questions, so read the wine type as carefully as the place or producer.
What the label says
- PDO / ΠΟΠProtected Designation of Origin
- A defined origin with its own production rules. Commandaria is the island’s best-known protected wine name.
- PGI / ΠΓΕProtected Geographical Indication
- A broader geographical category. The origin and the wine’s grape or style should be read together.
- WineWine without a protected geographical indication
- The category does not make the wine a Commandaria-style dessert wine; sweetness remains a separate matter.
Signature grapes
our choiceKey regions
- Commandaria
- Pitsilia
- Laona-Akamas
- Vouni Panagias-Ambelitis
- Krasochoria Lemesou
A dashed outline is a region we describe but do not yet hold a page for.
Protected wine names
11 in the EU registerWorth knowing
- Cypriot wine includes dry whites and reds as well as Commandaria.
- Xynisteri is white; Mavro and Maratheftiko are red grape names.
- Commandaria’s sweetness comes from a dried-grape wine tradition; Zivania is a spirit.
More in Asia
Sources
The description, the reading of the classification system and the choice of signature grapes are ours. Region and grape records are built from Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA 4.0). American AVA boundaries come from the TTB (public domain).