Paphos Wine Country
Paphos district covers two quite different wine landscapes: the Laona plateau in the north-west, near the Akamas peninsula, and the higher inland villages around Vouni Panagia and Statos-Agios Fotios. Between them they account for a substantial share of the island's serious production.
Laona and the Akamas fringe
Villages like Kathikas, Stroumbi and Polemi sit on a plateau at around 600 metres, close enough to the sea to catch maritime influence but high enough to escape coastal heat.
Xynisteri does particularly well here, and the area produced some of the first modern boutique wines on the island in the late 1980s and 1990s, when Cypriot wine began moving away from bulk production.
The Vouni Panagia hills
Inland and higher, the villages around Panagia and Statos-Agios Fotios reach 900 to 1,150 metres. This is where several producers have concentrated on indigenous varieties, and where some of the strongest Maratheftiko comes from.
The Chrysoroyiatissa monastery sits in this area too, with a winemaking tradition documented back to the eighteenth century.
Smaller villages worth the detour
Amargeti, Salamiou, Letymbou and Koilineia all have small family producers, several making only a few thousand bottles a year. These are working wineries rather than visitor attractions, and the welcome is correspondingly personal.
The Ezousa and Diarizos valleys, which cut down from the mountains toward the coast, are the geographic threads linking many of them.
Practicalities
Paphos wineries are more spread out than the Krasochoria, so plan on driving between them rather than walking. Two or three in a day is a comfortable pace.
Because many are very small operations, calling ahead is the difference between a tasting and a closed gate. Contact details are on each winery's page.
Wineries mentioned
Contact details and locations for each are on their page.
