Cyprus wine guides
Background on the island's wine regions, grapes and history — and practical advice for planning a visit.
The Krasochoria: Limassol's Wine Villages
The dense cluster of wine villages on the southern Troodos slopes holds more wineries than anywhere else in Cyprus. Here's how the region fits together.
Read guide →Commandaria: The World's Oldest Named Wine
Still made in fourteen designated villages from sun-dried Mavro and Xynisteri, Commandaria has a documented history stretching back to the Crusades.
Read guide →The Indigenous Grapes of Cyprus
Xynisteri, Mavro, Maratheftiko and a handful of rare varieties being brought back from near-extinction — a guide to what actually grows on the island.
Read guide →A Day in Omodos
The most visited of the Krasochoria packs several wineries, a medieval monastery and a cobbled square into a village you can cross on foot.
Read guide →High-Altitude Wines of Pitsilia
Some of the highest commercial vineyards in the Mediterranean sit on the eastern Troodos slopes, where altitude does the work that latitude cannot.
Read guide →Paphos Wine Country
From the Laona plateau above the Akamas to the mountain villages around Panagia, the west of the island has a wine culture distinct from Limassol's.
Read guide →The Monastery Wineries of Cyprus
Orthodox monasteries kept viticulture alive on the island for centuries, and several still make wine commercially today.
Read guide →Planning Your First Winery Visit in Cyprus
Cypriot wineries are mostly small family operations, not staffed visitor centres. Knowing that changes how you should plan a trip.
Read guide →Nicosia and the Northern Troodos
Less visited than Limassol or Paphos, the villages inland from Nicosia hold a cluster of young, ambitious wineries at serious altitude.
Read guide →Larnaca and the Lefkara Hills
The island's smallest wine district is also its least explored — a handful of boutique producers in the hills above the Lefkara valley.
Read guide →The Cyprus Wine Festival in Limassol
Nine evenings in the Municipal Gardens every autumn, and the broadest tasting of Cypriot wine you will find in one place.
Read guide →Zivania: The Village Spirit of Cyprus
Distilled from grape pomace and dry wine, protected across the EU since 2004, and usually poured at the end of a Cypriot meal.
Read guide →Harvest in Cyprus: When the Vintage Happens
Picking runs from August into November, staggered by altitude and variety. What that means for deciding when to visit.
Read guide →Cyprus Wine and the Meze Table
A meze puts twenty dishes on the table at once, which breaks the usual one-wine-one-dish logic. What actually works with Cypriot food.
Read guide →Five Thousand Years: Wine in Ancient Cyprus
Pottery excavated at Erimi carried wine residue from between 3500 and 3000 BC, among the oldest such evidence in the Mediterranean.
Read guide →Yein Kafrisin: Cyprus Wine in the Talmud
Cyprus is the only place outside the Land of Israel whose wine is named in the Talmud — and a winery at Kato Platres brought the name back in 2008.
Read guide →Reading a Cyprus Wine Label
Seven PDOs, four PGIs, and rules about altitude and yield. What the words on a Cypriot bottle actually commit the producer to.
Read guide →Organic and Low-Intervention Wineries in Cyprus
Eleven of the island's wineries describe their own work as organic, sustainable or minimal-intervention. Where they are, and why the climate suits it.
Read guide →Cyprus Wine Without a Car
Public transport does not reach the wine villages. Here is what actually works if you are not driving — including the one village where walking is genuinely enough.
Read guide →Six Hours Ashore: Wine from Limassol Port
What is genuinely reachable from the cruise terminal on a short call, with the real distances rather than optimistic ones.
Read guide →The Village Grape Festivals of Cyprus
From late August into November the wine villages mark the harvest with palouzes, soutzoukos, wine and zivania: what happens, where, and when to go.
Read guide →Visiting Cyprus Wineries in Winter
From November to March: quiet cellars, snow on Troodos, Christmas villages among the vines, and what to drink with winter food.
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