Cyprus Wine Blog - March 2010 - History of Cyprus Wine

This month we continue our journey to the wine history of Cyprus , focusing our attention on “The second era of the History of Cyprus Wines (1878-1980)”.

Wine, more than any food or beverage, has played a significant role in the history of mankind and nowhere is this seen more clearly than in Cyprus history. Historical evidence establishes wine being produced in the eastern Mediterranean area between 5000-4000 B.C. Cyprus is considered to be among the first countries to practise viticulture. Homer, the legendary epic poet, and Pindaros paid tribute to Cyprus wines. Cypriot wines are also mentioned in the Bible in the verse of King Solomon’s “Song of Songs”: “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi”. Modern excavations have established that during the Hellenic (Classical) Age, there existed a wealthy and remarkable society whose prosperity seems to have originated from and depended on viticulture, wine production and wine trading. In those days, Cypriots worshipped Dionysus (Latin Bacchus), son of Zeus and Semele, god of the vineyard and of wine, and Aphrodite (Latin Venus), goddess of love and beauty.

Wine has been made and sold in Cyprus for a long time. Cypriot wine was so popular that the Pharaohs of Egypt, the ancient Greeks and later the Romans placed orders for it. During the Classical period (mid 4th century B.C.), the Cypriot city-kingdoms became the centres of the wine trade between the Aegean islands, the Eastern Mediterranean countries and Egypt, as is evident from the number of cargo ships found lying on the seabed close to the island’s coast. The mosaics at the House of Dionysus, god of wine, in Paphos – a private house with over 40 rooms, believed to have belonged to a member of the Roman nobility – depict the colourful history of the Cyprus vine and its mythological origins. Cyprus wines were superb and in great demand in olden days and were an essential part of official banquets. At such banquets, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra are said to have toasted each other with it. Eventually, Mark Anthony gave Cyprus to Cleopatra, the legendary Queen of Egypt, as an ultimate token of love.

The Apostle Paul, accompanied by Barnabas and Mark the Evangelist (Barnabas’ kinsman), came to Cyprus in 45 A.D. to spread Christianity, which, by the end of the 4th century, had spread throughout the island. The Orthodox Church became administratively independent, or autocephalous (self-governing), and the Archbishop of Cyprus has been the head of Cyprus autocephalous church since then. In the Christian religion, God is presented as the keeper of a vineyard and the church as his vine. In the rite of the Holy Communion, the faithful drink sweet wine in representation of Christ’s blood. For the Orthodox community, wine has been – and still is – considered an essential adjunct to birth, baptism, marriage and death. During the Byzantine period, the old Eastern Mediterranean wine trade routes became active once more in the trading of wine for the purposes of religion, as the sweet wine of Cyprus was in great demand.

In the centuries that followed, Cyprus , like all neighbouring countries, suffered greatly from Arab invasions. In 1191, Richard the Lionheart in his Crusade captured Cyprus . He married the fair Berengaria in the chapel of Limassol Castle and celebrated his victory and his achievement with the sweet wine which later came to be known in Europe and to the entire civilized world as “Commandaria”. Richard ceded the island to Guy de Lusignan, the French “King of Jerusalem”, who became the founder of the Lusignan dynasty which ruled Cyprus for three centuries (1192-1489). Thus, 1192 marked the beginning of a new era in the social and political history of Cyprus .

The Lusignan period, together with the Venetian rule (1489-1570), constitute the Frankish era in the history of Cyprus . During the Lusignan reign, a feudal system was set up and a large number of settlers arrived in Cyprus . Among these settlers were the Knights of St. John, the ecclesiastical military order of St. John (the Baptist) of Jerusalem . These knights had their administrative headquarters – the Commanderie or Commandaria – in a castle west of Limassol, known today as “ Kolossi Castle ”. The castle was situated in a large fertile area of land with extensive plantations of wheat, cotton, sugar cane and vineyards. The knights of St. John , who knew the secrets of good wine-making, took the local know-how and upgraded its production techniques, improving its quality and elevating it to the wine in greatest demand at the time. Commandaria acquired world fame, for the knights traded it with enviable success and at considerable profit for themselves. The knights administered an extensive area of vineyards comprising a total of 40 villages situated within the Limassol District. It is remarkable that this very same wine survived over the centuries and is still available to us now, made in essentially the same way and from the very same places at the mountain villages of Limassol.

During the Middle Ages, the island was considered a stepping stone to the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean . This was especially true of the 13th and 14th centuries, when the coasts of Cyprus were the seaports most frequently visited by merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, ambassadors and soldiers. Because of its exceptional quality, Commandaria was much in demand in the trading centres of the Mediterranean . In Venice , for example, it could be imported free of tax because it was categorized as a tonic.

In the 16th century, the Venetians considered the expansionist policies of the Sultan of Constantinople as a threat to the Republic’s dominions. However, a peace treaty between the two powers provided that all Ottoman subjects should be free to enter Venetian lands as long as they did not cause any upheaval. Therefore, every time the Turkish captains appeared on the coasts of Cyprus , the Venetian authorities were obliged to offer them at least six silk cloths of different colours and 200 silver coins. The sultan and other high officials of the Ottoman Empire often used to send requests to the Venetian government of Cyprus , asking for some of the island’s renowned sweet wine.

The other more striking, account – which is well founded in history – is that Selim II (who ruled from 1566 to 1574), known also as “Selim the Sot”, a notorious drunkard, sent an army to capture Cyprus as the stocks of his favourite Cyprus wine needed replenishing. He got his wine, but only after massacring 30,000 Christians in Nicosia and Famagusta . The west’s reaction to the invasion of Cyprus was unprecedented. A massive and well-appointed fleet was formed under the command of Don Juan of Austria, a bastard son of Charles V. He sighted the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (Navpaktos) on the Gulf of Patra , in western Greece . In the ensuing carnage, up to 200 of the Turkish ships were sunk or captured, as against just 15 of the League’s galleys, the Turks’ first major defeat in two centuries and the largest number of sinking in any sea battle. The naval museum in Madrid has a splendid gallery devoted to the victory of Lepanto. However, the Turks rebuilt their fleet within a year, and held on to Cyprus when the war ended in 1573. In another story, Shakespeare’s Othello fictionally led the attack of the Venetians to retake Cyprus in 1571. According to historic sources, Selim died in 1574 after drinking a bottle of Cyprus wine and broke his skull on entering the bath.

The growth of Cyprus in the field of viticulture and wine-producing ended in the latter half of the 16th century with the Turkish Ottoman occupation. During virtually this entire 300-year period, wine producing would receive little attention because the taxes imposed on farmers had become prohibitive to wine production and many vineyards were abandoned. However, from the writing of several visitors, we can deduce that even under those difficult for viticulture times, vine cultivation in Cyprus continued to provide a living for those residing in the mountain villages. In these areas, where the soil is not sufficiently fertile for agriculture and the land is fractioned in small fields, wine grape growing wrote history and determined the distribution of human settlements. Furthermore, in the slopes of the Troodos Mountains and close to the Orthodox monasteries, the cultivation of the vines and the production of Commandaria continued in order to meet the demand as a Holy Communion wine.

Perhaps the most important stage in the history of Cyprus , both in international politics and the world of wine, took place in 1878 when British control over the island replaced the Turkish Ottoman rule. Under the British, taxation changes on wine production were removed and resulted in starting the local wine making industry once again. British occupation brought a revival in the winemaking industry. Taxation rules changed and the local cottage industry began to expand. In 1893, the first modern winery was built in Zanatzia near Limassol by the well-known wine family of Haggipavlu. With presses and fermentation tanks of stone, the new winery was set to flourish. Around the same time, an English family, the Chaplins, built a large wine-making plant at Pera Pedi, just below Platres and started making wine in fairly large quantities. Both these wineries would have made dry wines, from the local grapes “Xynisteri” (white) and “Mavro” red, which, as I suggested in my first article, were from vines that had been in Cyprus for many hundreds if not thousands of years.

By the start of the 19th century, Britain was the world’s leading industrial power and dominated international commerce. The 19th century was a turning point for wine in many respects. During the early 19th century, when the British were fighting the Napoleonic Wars, they were unable to get a steady supply of wine from France , and instead turned to Portugal . Port became the favoured wine in England during this time, and the English dominated the wine industry in Portugal .

By the mid 19th century, the wine industry of France enjoyed “Golden Age” period of prosperity. A new class of consumers, the bourgeoisie, emerged as a strong market for wine and other culinary products. Although the 19th century is considered to be the golden age of wines for the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions, it was not without tragedy. From the 1860s onwards, vineyards throughout Europe and other parts of the world were devastated by a North American aphid called Phylloxera vastatrix, an insect that attacks and destroys the roots of the vines. Millions of vines had to be uprooted and burned as a result of the spread of the tiny, vine-killing bug. The problem could only be fixed by grafting European vines onto the stem of the American vine, which was resistant to Phylloxera. The Phylloxera disaster affected European wine production for several decades, but it gave a boost to production elsewhere including the New World countries. The wines of the New World began challenging those of the Old World in the 19th century.

The first wave of expansion for Cypriot wines came with the misfortunes of the European viticulture sector. The cursed Philloxera beetle has never reached Cyprus . This meant that the indigenous vines grew undisturbed on their own rootstocks, often for 100 or even 150 years. As a consequence, demand for Cyprus grapes and wines, coupled with the relatively high prices offered, resulted in a mini boom for the industry. Further demand early in the 20th century came from local consumption and from the regional forces of Britain and France in the Middle East .

By 1883, the French vineyards had recovered from the Phylloxera blight and the French government imposed duties and discouraged imports to protect their own vineyards. In 1889, the Cypriots sent a delegation to London to lobby for a reduction in import duties on Cyprus wines, but without success. But the local industry proceeded undeterred. These were the years of the British Empire, with a strong presence in the Middle East , especially after World War I, from 1918 onwards. So the wine and spirits industry of Cyprus prospered with exports to all the places where the British were present: Palestine , Egypt , Sudan , even to the Arabian Gulf, as well as to the French in Lebanon and Syria .

As the new century started, there were the two up-to-date wine-making plants in Cyprus , the Chaplin family’s at Pera Pedhi and the Haggipavlu’s at Zanadzia, both in the Limassol district. Sales of products based on the grape grew steadily. In 1927, a group of Cypriot businessmen formed KEO (Cyprus Wine Corporation) with the objective of expanding modern wine production. In 1928, KEO purchased the Chaplin family winery and shortly afterwards started the construction of a second at Mallia village. As their wines came on to the market, a tacit agreement existed between KEO and Haggipavlu – that one would concentrate on wine and the other on brandy. This came to an end in 1935, when KEO opened a brandy distillery in Limassol, and Haggipavlu countered by purchasing the largest privately owned winery in Limassol and developing it into ETKO.

In 1943, following a strike, a breakaway group of trade union members from ETKO created a cooperative, LOEL. This was the first winery in Cyprus that was organised in the form of public company having thousands of shareholders, who in their majority were viticulturists. In the initial stages of its operation, LOEL produced spirits and fortified wines as the only quality products that could be produced from the indigenous grape varieties of those times – Mavro, Xynisteri and Muscat of Alexandria. Cyprus produced quality cheap wine and spirits (mainly in the form of Cyprus brandy) and the big four companies prospered as a result.

In 1947, a team of forward-looking vine growers decided to organize their grape own production, relieving themselves from the insecurities of the troubled times on the island, and created the great wine Co-operative, SODAP (the Vine Products Co-operative Marketing Union Ltd.) that united 10,000 families from 144 vine growing villages. From the beginning, SODAP was supported by the whole vine growing community, as it played the role of the stabilizing factor in the wine sector. SODAP owns and operates two wineries, one in Limassol and the other in Paphos, the two main vine producing areas of Cyprus . These “big four” wine producers (a term widely used to refer to KEO, ETKO, SODAP and LOEL) dominated the industry scene and survive to date. For most of the 20th century, the Cyprus wine industry focused on the production of inexpensive table wines mostly exported in bulk.

For more than 30 years, the Cyprus wine industry was “The Big Four”: KEO, ETKO, SODAP and LOEL, who produced very similar lines of wines, spirits, liqueurs and other by-products of grape juice. They were essentially businesses whose function was the utilisation of a basic raw material (grape juice) to make commercially viable products to be sold around the world in one form or another. The object was to produce profits or dividends for the shareholders, whether they were family members, grape growers or investors, large or small. The four major wineries on the island – ETKO (privately owned with 800,000 bottle production), KEO (a public company with four million bottles), LOEL (a public company selling two million bottles) and SODAP (a cooperative with 2½ million bottle sales) once controlled almost all the production.

Despite World War II, the Cyprus viticulture industry prospered. Although not a lot was done for it by the British, markets were available because of the British (and French) presence in the Middle East , which created a demand for wines and spirits produced on the island. Development resulted from the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Cypriots running the Big Four. Good cheap brandy and other distilled products could always command a market, as could good grape juice, either in its natural form or fermented. So the sales executives of KEO, ETKO, LOEL and SODAP began to travel internationally, looking for opportunities. All over the world Cyprus sold its vine products – concentrated grape juice, pure alcohol for translation into vodka and other spirits, Sangria and other fruit-juice laced wines, at the same time developing its growing local market as the tourism industry began its upward surge. There were boom years and the industry prospered making literally hundreds of grape-based drinks: juices, concentrates, table wines, aperitif and dessert wines and vermouths. In 1954, 75 new varieties of vine were introduced to the island. Although there are only four main producers today, 10,000 families are involved in viticulture today. During the years that followed, both industry and government encouraged the introduction of several grape varieties from Italy , Spain and France .

Fortified wine, that is to say wine strengthened and stabilised by the addition of brandy or other spirit, was already popular in northern markets and the Cypriots had started making “Cyprus Sherry” in 1937. But it was in the late 1940’s that it really started to take off. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the world was demanding low-priced products and Cyprus supplied them – dry, medium and sweet “Cyprus Sherry”, table wines sold in bulk to Britain (where it turned up in bottles with brand names like “Hirondelle”) and other countries, by the million litres. Wine, or “plonk”, to give it its vernacular title, was the party drink and you took us much as you could buy for a pound or two. “Cyprus Sherry” became a household commodity in Britain , whilst export to the Eastern European countries soared.

Incredibly cheap, EMVA Cream and many other brands started sweeping into the UK market – not yet the wine-loving country it is today, but one that consumed millions of gallons of “sticky” port or sherry, or imitations thereof, at Christmas and other celebratory times. By the 1960’s, Britain was consuming 13.6 million litres of Cyprus wines, half the island’s production, mostly as sweet sherry. A British market research study of fortified wines in 1978 showed Emva cream was the leading Cyprus sherry in terms of brand recognition, and second in that market only to Harveys’ Bristol Cream. The island became the UK ’s third leading wine supplier behind France and Spain . A major factor was that Cyprus Sherry was more affordable than Spanish Sherry, as British taxation favoured alcoholic beverages with an alcoholic content below the 15½%-18% bracket. This competitive advantage was lost a few years later with the re-banding of the alcohol content taxation. The fortified wine market also began to shrink as a whole, due to a change in consumer taste. As a result, Cyprus sherry sales in the UK fell from their peak in the early 1970’s by some 65% by the mid 1980’s. The final blow came when the EC ruled that as of January 1996, only fortified wine from Jerez could assume the title of sherry.

The other big market for Cyprus wine during the same period was the former Soviet bloc. Large volumes of low quality, mass produced, blended wines were sold to the eastern block with the cooperative wine producers (LOEL and SODAP) taking the lion’s share. This market began to dry up in the 1980’s and vanished altogether with the fall of communism. Comment on the industry’s mass production tactics came in a report by “The Times” in 1968, noting “the end of an underwater pipeline off the coast of Limassol linking to tankers taking on not gas or oil, but wine – 100 tons an hour of it – destined for about 40 countries throughout the world”.

Over the years, the number of grape varieties increased from a couple of dozen to over 200, however not all of them have been found suitable for local conditions, so the lion’s share during this period was provided by the local varieties “Mavro” (75%) and “Xynisteri” (15%). Newer varieties that have been introduced to Cyprus since the 1950’s include Palomino, Chardonnay, Semillon, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz , Carignan, Mataro , Alicante Bouchet, Merlot, Grenache, etc.

The change in the trend of viticulture during the period between 1950 and 1980 is evident from statistical records which give an increase from 83,000 tons in 1950 to 200,000 by 1980.

Most of the Cyprus wines produced in the 20th century were basic table wines of variable quality, from rustic wines that held some charm, to bottles that were not enjoyable to drink. The vineyards of Cyprus are mostly on the southern slopes of the Troodos mountain range near Limassol. The second area is in the south-western part of the island near Paphos. Problems with quality seem to arise because many of the grapes were harvested away from the winery and travel by road in open trucks, thus the grapes were inclined to spoil under these undesirable conditions.

Unfortunately, the winds of rapid change which marked the last few decades brought about a dramatic transformation to the economy as well as the political and cultural life of nations. They also had their impact on wine production and its marketing. The Cyprus wine industry suffered a severe blow from a number of events, the most important of which were: the joining of Britain to the European Union; the collapse of the Soviet Union; the competition for wines of the New World ; the influence of mass media; and the changes in consumers’ diet and life style.

Since independence in 1960, the Government has encouraged the creation of smaller wine enterprises in the grape-growing regions. Today there are more than 40 registered regional wineries, making a major contribution to the diversification of style and the development of new wines.

Moreover, during the past 25 years the situation has substantially changed. Cypriots have planted hundreds of thousands of new vines of famous international varieties and re-discovered old Cyprus types. They have built new or restored old wineries in the hills of Troodos. There are now several small wineries ready to compete in the international market on quality.

To be continued…………..

Wine News and Information

The cork industry is preparing a €20m advertising campaign using cork’s “scientific background” to convince the public of its benefits.

Cork has dozens of applications, including flooring, design and footwear in the automotive industry, the military and pharmaceuticals. It is lightweight and naturally fire-retardant, making it attractive to aircraft manufacturers. Wine corks are natural, bio-degradable, renewable products that have the potential of being recycled into other usable materials.

A cork stopper’s original purpose is to help a vintage reach its peak. They have been used in this way for more than four centuries, a practice said to be set into motion by French monk Dom Perignon. Though many trees have a layer of cork bark, the cork oak tree provides most of the world’s commercial cork (about 50% to 60% is used for wine corks) from trees grown primarily in the Mediterranean region where low rainfall, high humidity and plenty of sunshine provide optimum growing conditions.

As far as bottle closures are concerned, while alternative closures such as screw-caps are growing, cork is losing market share. The cork industry grossed €2.09bn in 2007/8, of which cork closures represented more than €1.7bn, or 80%. In 2009 there were 3.1bn screw-caps sold worldwide, a total which is increasing by 500m a year. The market share for cork closures has gone down from over 90% in the early 1990s to around 75% today. In 2009, 11.3bn units were sold, against 11.7bn in 2008, a decrease of 3.5%.

Monolithos Monthly News

With the flush of spring’s growth, things are moving at a faster rate both in the vineyard and at the winery. Cultivating for weeds or managing the vines for mildew becomes a priority. Timing and knowledge are paramount in the forming of fine wines during this rush of growth and in the maintaining of healthy vineyards.

Early spring is an active time in the wine cellar. Young white and red wines receive their final racking or cold stabilization before bottling. The first wine scheduled to undergo bottling this year is the new 2009 rose. However, all 2008 wines are available for tasting.

If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.

We thank you for your continued support. Take care and remember, when in Cyprus follow the advice:

“Conserve water. Drink more wine.”