The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: October 2010

Wines are increasingly facing a very competitive playing field, and most producers are looking for a way to single out their wines to the consumer. Each year, dozens of local, regional, national and international wine competitions are organised worldwide aiming at offering wineries the chance to win fame and fortune for their brands.

A medal can help tremendously with marketing efforts. Get a gold medal in an influential competition and your wine could soon be flying off store shelves. Competitions are believed to be held also for the sake of the consumer, as they help choose the best quality wine among offers in the given class and price segment. For a consumer, a small sticker of golden, silver or bronze colour is a sort of assurance that this is a product with improved characteristics. Overall, results of wine competitions can offer a great resource to consumers for information from a diverse panel of experts, rather than just a single critic. It is also an additional psychological factor to confirm that the right decision was made. But consumers may not realise that competitions are also money-spinners for the organisers. This short article will focus on a handful of competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate.

Broadly speaking, a wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages or brands of wine. Wine competitions have remained popular for at least a century and a half, starting from the famous international exhibition (Exposition Universelle) in Paris in 1855. Nowadays, almost every national fair sponsors a competition. Furthermore, there are dozens of competitions sponsored or organized by magazines (Vineyard and Winery Management, Decanter, The Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, etc), wine societies, wine summits, chambers of commerce, newspapers, grape growers associations, wine industry professionals and a number of independent wine experts whose competition experience spans for several decades.

Formats vary from national or regional to international. Regional competitions can be useful in helping wineries target their sales efforts. They really give a good snapshot of who’s doing the best job with certain types of local grape varieties. Wines judged in the context of their geographical origin aim at developing greater sensitivity toward the complexities and “terroir” of regional wine characteristics, and also to measure the influence of regional growing conditions on the taste and quality of individual wines.

Such competitions tend to be organized by wineries, their trade associations, or entrepreneurs. They are popular with producers because there are many winners and the medals are useful in marketing their products. The regional competitions are a complement to the international ones. Competitions, especially on the international scale, are needed by producers who have reached a certain critical mass and have enough volume and quality to make their brand noticeable on the market. In the marketing jargon, competitions are a valuable tool for brand building, development or support.

Entering wine competitions isn’t really a matter of choosing the biggest or most famous contests, but about finding the ones that will help your winery achieve its goals – whether that means getting your wines in front of influential writers and sommeliers, gauging your winery’s performance against local competitors, or breaking into new accounts. One of the critical factors of recognition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized events. Names of organizers and standards of judging play a vital role in the image of a competition. One of the most important criteria in evaluating wine competitions is the quality of the judges. Before agreeing to enter, one has to be sure to check the competition’s website for a list of participating judges. They should be skilled tasters – professionals, not wine collectors, and must come from many countries, truly reflecting a world palate. As for judges and judging procedures, organizers of any serious event understand that only high standards ensure validity of a competition and trust for results. All prestigious international events are run with the involvement of experienced professionals who are particularly reputed in their area of work.

Transparency of the process is also a key issue. The process is described in detail, starting from receiving samples and ending in giving awards. Most competitions would have only organoleptic evaluation, but some also do chemical analysis.

Some wineries believe that by entering many wines in numerous competitions they will fare better than others, simply due to the odds. Wineries with large productions may enter a large number of wines because the odds are so good. They will send in dozens of wines, and if they win a medal they advertise it aggressively. For many wineries, however, it’s just not feasible – or even desirable – to enter more than a couple of competitions each year. With all the different contests out there, what’s the best selection strategy?

The most common form of wine competition is one in which awards are given to groups of wines in various winning categories on the basis of blind tasting. That is, the judges do not know the identity of the wines they are evaluating. The awards are frequently bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals. However, ribbons of various colours are also sometimes used. It is not uncommon for one-third or more of the wines competing to be awarded medals. These competitions often include a “Best of Class” award, producing a clear category winner among those vintages awarded a gold medal. Some winemakers go home disappointed, some go home satisfied, and some stand behind the podium and thank the academy.

Regulations govern the classification of wine in many regions of the world. European wines tend to be classified by region, by grape colour (red, white), by grape variety ( Shiraz , Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay), by vintage (made from grapes that were grown and harvested in a specified year), by method of vinification (sparkling, white, rosé) and fortified liqueur wines. A recent addition involves wines made from organically produced grapes.

Competitions that specialise in judging according to regional classification such as wines of particular appellations are arranged in groups (mostly of 10) and evaluated by judges who are unaware of the geographic origin or producer. In contrast, other competitions group wines by grape varietal name and suggested retail price. Selected for their familiarity with wines from specific growing regions, the judges represent some of the most qualified experts in the industry: food and beverage media, winemakers, wine marketers, oenology and viticulture professors and researchers, restaurateurs and sommeliers, hospitality and tourism consultants, and fine wine retailers.

In the paragraphs that follow, reference is made to a number of current wine competitions approved by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) and a handful of other international competitions to provide an understanding of how they operate. This is not, however, an attempt to evaluate which competitions are best to enter, nor which ones seem more prestigious or have the best-qualified judges.

The OIV was established on 3 April 2001 with its head office in Paris , France . It is an intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature, and is recognised for its works concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, table grapes, raisins and other vine-based products. It has adopted specific standards for approved international wine competitions. For these competitions, an expert commissioner is appointed who participates in the works of the different juries and verifies that the rules and standards are observed. The approved competitions should be open, without discrimination, to all wines and promote knowledge of wines, encourage their production and responsible consumption as an active part of civilisation, make known and present characteristic types of wine produced in various countries to the public, and raise the technical and scientific level of producers and contribute to the development of their production. All entries must have an indication of the country of origin, including the place where the grapes were harvested and where the wines were made. All samples must be presented with labels and commercial presentations, exact identification of the participant and the exact designation of the product, in accordance with the regulations of the country of origin and analysis certificates carried out by an accredited laboratory.

The organiser is responsible for designating the jurors from several countries in cooperation with the OIV. The majority of jurors shall be oenologists or persons with an equivalent diploma in the field of wine. Persons having demonstrated a high qualification for tasting in the field of wine and may complete the jury. Within the same jury, the absolute majority of the jurors may not come from the organising country.

Each juror shall taste at the rate of no more than 45 samples per day, without prejudice to possible tastings asked again by the President of the Jury. This takes place in three sessions of approximately 15 samples each of dry wine, or two sessions of 15 samples of dry wine to which may be added a session of 10 samples from other categories.

Wines are judged according in groups to their classifications. The objective of categorising wine is essentially to present homogenous, successive series of samples based on the following categories and criteria: geographic provenance, vine varieties, vintage, sugar contents, wooded or un-wooded characteristics.

The wines are grouped and tasted by jurors during sessions in the following order:

1. Sparkling whites

2. Still whites

3. Sparkling rosés

4. Still rosés

5. Sparkling reds

6. Still reds

7. Wine under a film of yeasts

8. Natural sweet wine

9. Ice wine

10. Liqueur wine

A total of 100 points are allocated for judgment as follows: Visual (15), Nose (30), Taste (44), Harmony – Overall (11).

The sum of all the medals awarded to the samples must not exceed 30% of the total of samples presented at the competition. If this percentage is exceeded, the samples that obtained the lowest score are eliminated. The samples having obtained a determined number of points for a tasting shall be classified according to the following award level categories:

Grand gold – at least 92 points

Gold – at least 85 points

Silver – at least 82 points

Bronze – at least 80 points

List of major European and World wine competitions

1. Concours Mondial de Bruxelles: Belgium *

2. MUNDUS vini: Germany *

3. Berliner Wein Trophy: Germany *

4. Vinalies: France *

5. Thessaloniki International Wine Competition: Greece *

6. Concours International BACCHUS: Spain *

7. Concours International des Vins MONDE SÉLECTION: Belgium *

8. Concorso Enologico Internazionale VINITALY: Italy *

9. Mondial du Rosé: France *

10. Chardonnay du Monde: France *

11. Citadelles du Vin: France *

12. Concours International de vins du Brésil: Brazil *

13. Mundus Vini: Germany *

14. Mondial du Merlot: Switzerland *

15. TERRAVINO: Israel *

16. Chisinau Wines and Spirits Contest: Moldavia *

17. VINOVITA: Croatia *

18. La Selezione del Sindaco: Italy *

19. Vinagora: Hungary *

20. Concours professionnel International de vins et de spiritueux: Russia *

21. Cyprus Wine Competition: Cyprus *

22. International Wine Competition Muvina: Slovakia *

23. International Wine Contest Bucharest : Romania *

24. International Wine Challenge: UK

25. Decanter World Wine Awards: UK

26. International Wine and Spirit Competition: UK

27. American Wine Society Commercial Wine Competition: USA

28. Starwine International Wine Competition: USA

29. New World International Wine Competition: USA

30. San Francisco International Wine Competition: USA

31. Sélections Mondiales des Vins: Canada *

32. Intervin U.S./Canadian International Wine Competition: Canada

33. Sydney International Wine Competition: Australia

34. Vinalies Catador America Latina : Chile *

35. Malbec al Mundo: Argentina *

36. Vinandino: Argentina *

37. Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition: China

* Note: Competitions sponsored/accredited by the OIV. The conditions for granting sponsorship are defined by the guidelines as provided in the Internal Rules of the OIV.

One of the critical factors in the reputation and recognition of a wine competition and thus success is an effective communication channel with various target groups. A competition’s influence increases when more people can read or learn about it. This is why publishing houses or exhibition groups stand behind the most recognized wine events.

The following three leading British independent wine competitions constitute good examples of the current trend in the organisation of wine competitions in the form of a business venture:

1. The International Wine and Spirit Competition

2. The International Wine Challenge

3. Decanter World Wine Awards

International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC)

The International Wine and Spirit Competition is an annual wine competition founded in 1969 by the oenologist Anton Massel under the name Club Oenologique. In 1978, the name of the venture was changed to the International Wine and Spirit Competition and, within a short space of time, the disciplines of the competition were redefined. The original aim of the IWSC was to award excellence to wines and spirits worldwide encouraging consumer and trade recognition for quality products. A couple of years ago, the IWSC became part of Nexus Media Communications group that also owns Harpers weekly. In 2009, William Reed (owner of the International Wine Challenge) acquired Harpers from Nexus and the IWSC announced a new media partner, The Drinks Business.

Each year, the competition receives more than 70,000 entries from over 80 countries worldwide. The awards given by the competition are considered to be some of the highest honours in the industry. The two-stage judging process takes place over a six month period, comprising of blind tasting and detailed technical analysis undertaken by an independent laboratory. The competition has its own storage facilities and cellaring for over 30,000 bottles. All wines, spirits and liqueurs are blind tasted in groups divided by variety, region and vintage as necessary. Entrants are encouraged to get their products to the organisers as early as possible to give them time to settle. Wines and spirits are judged by panels drawn from 300 specialists from around the world. Many are Masters of Wine, some are winemakers or distillers, and others are trade specialists. Every judge is screened and panels selected for their knowledge and expertise and only taste products that they know well and understand.

All judges also attend an IWSC judges’ induction course. Judges sit in dedicated tasting rooms and are served only numbered glasses and an assessment sheet – at no time do they see the bottles. It takes over six months to judge all the products as they are sorted into over 1,500 categories. Initially, all judging is by region/area; variety/style/type; vintage/age etc. Wines and spirits that win awards may then go forward to the appropriate trophy category to compete at national or international level. It is the thoroughness that makes the IWSC’s awards so valuable. Awards are made on a points system and sponsored trophies are presented in selected categories. Technical analysis is carried out on Gold, Gold (Best in Class), Silver (Best in Class) award winning wines, spirits and liqueurs to ensure that all products are technically sound and will be of the same high quality when they reach the consumer as they were when our judging panels originally tasted them. The IWSC is the only competition to judge northern hemisphere wines and southern hemisphere wines at different times of the year in line with the different harvest times to ensure an equal and fair process. The competition has the support of many of the world’s top wine and spirits producers. The unique combination of detailed technical analysis and specialist judging panels means that gaining any IWSC award is an outstanding achievement.

International Wine Challenge (IWC)

The competition was launched in London in 1984 by Robert Joseph and Charles Metcalfe, originally as a feature in the Wine International magazine, later renamed Wine & Spirit, and now the Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review. The International Wine Challenge is a wine competition that attracts from around the globe over 10,000 entries each year.

The results of the competition are published on the International Wine Challenge website in May, in trade bi-weekly magazine Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade Review and the World’s Best Wines Guide. As for judges and judging procedures, the International Wine Challenge claims that their lists of judges include over 40 Masters of Wine. The IWC assesses every wine blind and judges each for its faithfulness to variety, region and vintage. Every wine is assessed independently of its price. Value for money awards are made after the wine has been judged for quality.

The competition takes place over two weeks. There are three rounds of blind tasting: groups of eight to 14 wines of the same style are tasted and scored by tables of four judges. There are over 400 judges. Wines scoring more than 84 points out of 100 advance to round two, where they are tasted again and gold medal winners in each style are awarded. Round three is a tasting of gold medal winners to decide on trophy winners. Throughout the rigorous judging processes, each medal winning wine is tasted at least three times and sometimes as many as six. There is no set number of trophies awarded. In September, the IWC Awards Dinner is held in London . Each year, the achievements of the top medal winners, and the leading wine merchants, are publicly rewarded at the International Wine Challenge Awards Dinner, with over 800 guests from the UK wine trade plus international producers and winemakers. The IWC awards ceremony officially unveils the Champion Trophy Winners, Merchant of the Year Awards, Great Value Trophy Winners and Winemaker of the Year Awards, along with Personality of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year the tasting focuses on 10-year-old and five-year-old wines.

Decanter World Wine Awards

Decanter World Wine Awards was founded in 2004 and gained a reputation as one of the world’s most respected and influential wine competitions. Pulling out its roster of high-calibre wine writers to judge, this competition was immediately seen as a major player, not only in Britain but also around the world. An expert panel of tasters from around the world, chaired by Steven Spurrier, judge wines on a regional basis reflecting variety, style and retail price. The Awards are one of the most important competitions in the UK wine trade. The 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards attracted in total 10,285 wines – more than double the amount when the competition was launched six years ago. This phenomenal growth is due to Decanter’s reputation for using only the very best judges, coupled with its unparalleled global reach for the results. Any type of wine from anywhere in the world can enter the competition, whether red, white, rosé, still, sparkling, sweet or fortified. Wines must be labelled in accordance with the European Community provisions to show the name of the region and the geographical area of origin, the nominal volume and alcoholic strength. Wines must be made 100% from grapes grown in the country in which the wine is bottled, with the exception of those cases of cross-regional and intra-national blends recognised by the EU. A thorough understanding of regional style is crucial in order to recognise quality, rather than just rewarding “competition wines”. Wines are tasted blind in groups of 12 and in eight price bands. The success of the Decanter World Wine Awards rests on its unique judging process and world-class judging panels. Results are made on a regional basis to promote a sense of origin, and judges are only selected when they have an intimate knowledge of a specific region.

Decanter has around 200 judges including regional chairs, sitting on four-person panels. Three people on each panel do the main judging; the fourth is that region’s regional chair responsible for recording the results and serves as a tie-breaker. Most regional chairs participate in the discussions as well. The judges are an international who’s who of wine, and are well-known and highly regarded wine professionals. Four bottles must be submitted at a cost of £80 ($145) per wine if the samples come from in the U.K. (from the agent of an overseas wine) or £98 ($175) per wine if the sample comes from overseas. Wines do not have to be commercially available in the U.K. Decanter prints 50,000 copies of their Awards issue, which are circulated to over 80 countries. To showcase Gold medal wines each year, Decanter hosts a big event in September called “The Decanter World Wine Awards Presentation Dinner”, where results of the Awards are announced to the trade with a high-profile stand at the London International Wine Fair and at Vinexpo. The glamorous Awards dinner gathers together the crème de la crème of the wine industry under one roof.

Like all issues associated with wine, there are those for and those against wine competitions. The challengers argue that wine competitions are nothing more than money spinners. Slow moving stock is used for entering competitions. Medals are given out in thousands and have no value. Who is benefiting from these awards? It has to be the wine houses that clear their stock, the supermarkets who can drum up sales from promotions, and the companies which organize the competition.

Though some people view wine competitions as the domain of large-production brands, it is also true that they can help boutique wineries make a name for themselves. No matter which model is chosen, a competition is a type of business activity that should be commercially attractive for its organizers. When organized correctly, a competition will cut even in the first year and turns into a profitable business from the second or the third year. According to an internal source in one of the leading publishing houses, competitions generate the third largest revenue in the list of company’s activities.

Wine News and Information

* During his 42-year music career, Julio Iglesias, the Madrid-born singer, has sold more than 300 million albums in 14 different languages, making him among the top 10 best-selling musicians in history. The singer has bought so much wine over the years that he seems to have lost count of how many bottles he has in his three cellars in Spain , Miami and the Dominican Republic . “I’ve got about 5,000 top wines and hundreds of thousands of normal wines,” he admits, without hyperbole. Generous with his plentiful stock, he gives away about 100 cases of wine to friends every year.

Brought up in Madrid in the 1950s by his doctor father, Iglesias got by in the early days by drinking “any old stuff from Valdepeñas”. In his late teens, he played as a goalkeeper for Real Madrid football club until a near fatal car accident in 1963 ended his sporting career. During his rehabilitation, to develop dexterity in his hands, he started playing the guitar and subsequently writing music. The rest, as they say, is history.

Iglesias’ wine epiphany was equally notable. In 1973, he was invited by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild – a big Iglesias fan – to a dinner party at her home in Paris after one of his concerts. “She asked me what I thought of the wine and I told her that I’d never tasted anything like it,” Iglesias recalls with brio. “She summoned the butler to serve a second wine, this time in a decanter, which I later learned was Lafite 1961. It was the first time in my life I’d felt a wine all the way down to my toes. It worked its magic through my body and made me realise that wine had a lot more mystery and history than I had first thought.” The memory of the Lafite lingered, sending Iglesias on a lifelong wine journey. He began picking up the odd case in the countries he toured in – reds in France, whites in Germany – and got seriously into collecting in 1978, after building a 4,000-bottle cellar in the Miami home. Outside of France , Iglesias is a big fan of Spanish icon wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. “I love trying wines from lesser-known Spanish regions like Calatayud, Jumilla and Zamora ”. He also dips his toe in the New World via Australia , South Africa , California and Argentina .

* Despite continuing global financial woes, a sunbeam of optimism has started to shine brightly on the Italian wine industry. Figures released by the Italian Wine and Food Institute (IWFI) in New York named Italy the leading importer of wines in the USA . The news follows a recent Gallup Poll finding that says Americans now drink more alcohol than they have in a quarter century. In addition, a recent European study named the U.S. market the most robust and dynamic worldwide in terms of foreign wine sales. Overall, international imports to the U.S. decreased in quantity but increased in value this year. Yet, Italy still remains the number one imported bottled wine-producing nation with 850,160 hectolitres against Australia ’s 583,580 hectolitres. Meanwhile, the Spanish trade institute in New York released a report aimed at European vintners that paints a very sunny picture of the US imports market. Thanks to interest in wine by the so-called millennial generation, wine consumption in American has grown 32% from 2000 to 2009, the report said. It described the US market as “the most robust and dynamic”.

Monolithos Monthly News

The 2010 vintage is over. All the fruit has been picked. The white wines’ fermentation has been completed. The reds are all pressed and the fermentation is progressing under temperature control. During the 2010 vintage, a spell of hot weather in July accelerated ripening, necessitating the harvesting of a lot of grapes at short notice. However, we enjoyed a beautifully good harvest enhanced by a great team of dedicated friends comprising a team of expatriates. Martin Wood managed all the picking and hence the harvesting went as smooth as silk.

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 always remember:

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”

Galileo Galilee

The Cyprus Wine Blog: September 2010

Over its 8,000 year-long history, wine has evolved as an essential beverage that accompanies and enhances a wide range of European and Mediterranean-style cuisines, from the simple and traditional to the most sophisticated and complex. Ernest Hemingway, in his book “A Moveable Feast” based on his memoirs from Paris , writes:

“In Europe , we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness, wellbeing and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism, nor a sign of sophistication, nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and – to me – as necessary.”

In recent years, trends in wine production, consumption, drinking patterns, socio-cultural factors, economic and political changes, have significantly influenced drinking cultures and their associated lifestyles. The way people select, serve and drink wine is constantly changing and different cultures acquire quite different ideas about the function of wine.

As a traditional cultural symbol of European living, the role of wine has evolved and changed from an important source of nutrition to a cultural companion to food and hospitality associated with a healthy lifestyle. However, in a number of countries, wine is no longer seen as necessarily a drink to be served with food, but rather a no-food wine. In some areas, sweet wine is served before a meal. Others use still dry wine before a meal as an aperitif, sometimes accompanied by an appetizer. In some regions, it is customary to open sparking wine at the beginning as well as at the end of a meal. In other regions, a glass of chilled wine has become a refreshment beverage and an acceptable alternative to a beer. So nowadays, Europeans in some regions see wine as a drink that belongs exclusively in the dining room. At the other end of the evolutionary scale, the custom is to drink first and eat second. Most wine cultures around the globe lie somewhere between these two extremes.

An increasing proportion of wine of all sorts, including even quite elegant red wine, is drunk without food, or without any solid matter more substantial than a bowl of nuts or potato chips. Wine experts believe that over the last two decades, consumers have turned from occasional wine drinkers into wine enthusiasts. They are not only drinking wine with meals, but are also drinking wine alone or as a cocktail, without accompanying food. Purists may complain about the apparent sweetness of so many wines made today, but for many newcomers to wine, it is this sweetness and smoothness that makes the wines so easy to drink on their own.

Mass production and middle-of-the-road popularity has also brought forth an amazing array of wines – bringing to the market a new sense of variety, affordability, and creativity that only free enterprise, competition and contemporary marketing can provide. The vast majority of these wines are sold in bulk at supermarkets. This is not to say that these wines are bad or not worth drinking. There are fashions in wine, just like in everything else. Mass produced wines aim at pleasing a wide variety of tastes. Many people would not give wine a second chance unless they are offered a soft, sweet wine that is low in acidity and easy to sip. The word “smooth” is important. It has become a sort of euphemism for sweet and soft, or low in tannin. And it is smooth reds that are the obvious no-food candidates, drunk in many bars today, slightly chilled. The very visible trend towards reds from a number of countries with their much higher alcohol content and softer, riper tannins is surely partly a consequence of these changing drinking habits.

It does not need an in-depth investigation to predict that demand for softer, sweeter reds will continue to grow, at least in the medium term. Consequently, wine producers everywhere seek to create the sort of fruit-driven styles that appeal most to no-food wine drinkers. This has huge implications for the style of wines that are likely to be most in demand.

Wines may be classified by vinification methods. These include classifications such as red or white wine, sparkling, semi-sparkling or still, fortified and dessert wines. Whether it is red or white, wine is a beverage that tastes great by itself or with a meal. Drunk on its own, wine tastes different to when it accompanies a meal, because wine acts on food in a similar manner to the way a spice does. Acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations.

An aperitif is an alcoholic drink that is usually served to stimulate the appetite before a meal, contrasting with a digestive (digestif), which is served after meals. An aperitif is more than just an icebreaker – it is a welcome to your guests and an appetite stimulant which can enhance your celebration or wine tasting party. Generally speaking, the aperitif is light in body, fresh, lively and often served cool. It should be refreshing, not too serious or overpowering. Your goal is to enliven the palate, not restrict it! You want a drink that guests can sip easily while talking and greeting other guests. In general, you do not want something really heavy which will overwhelm the palate.

It’s only in recent times that the notion of wine as a cocktail, consumed on its own without reference to food, has become socially acceptable. Wine is definitely a versatile drink which can co-exist perfectly with other types of alcohol. Mixing wine with various other substances can sometimes lead to very interesting effects.

For summer receptions or parties, welcoming guests with cocktails in long glasses works very well. Any cocktail can be also an aperitif. Beyond just adding fruit flavours and acidic components, the use of wine can add all types of complexity to a drink. The addition of wine in mixed drinks not only lowers the alcohol level but also adds a little sweetness and can bring a rich, layered flavour to the cocktail. In fact, creating a balanced cocktail could be compared to blending a wine.

Choosing the right type and style of wine can be a key to creating a cocktail that works. The presence of wine in the cocktails is not immediately recognizable because it tastes like an indescribable fruit. Here are a few simple wine cocktails which demonstrate the flexibility of wine.

* Cranberry juice mixed with an equal amount of white (still or sparkling) wine is very refreshing.

* Kir is a popular cocktail made with a measure of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) topped up by white (still or sparkling) wine.

* Sangria is a Spanish traditional cocktail made simply by mixing a bottle of red wine, two shots of brandy, and cut-up fresh fruit. Serve over ice.

* Coke mixed with a big, fat red wine is a simple-to-make cocktail, extremely pleasant and refreshing on a hot day.

* Kir Bourgogne : This Burgundy version of a Kir is made with crème de cassis (a blackcurrant flavoured liqueur) and red wine instead of white.

When selecting wine for a reception, most couples choose one white and one red. Guests tend to choose their wine and stick with it throughout the celebration. If you decide to serve a variety of wines during a reception, it would be good to follow a few guidelines. Serve the fresher, lighter wines first – these are usually the whites. Serving whites first, then moving to younger, followed by older reds is a wonderful way to orchestrate the wine service at a dinner. However, there are no rules – you can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary, depending on the season. For example, while a cool, crisp wine might be a perfect opener on a hot summer afternoon, but in the middle of winter, it might not be ideal.

White wine is also perfect for starting off a social evening, and it is ideal for toasts and special occasions. Most people enjoy a glass of chilled, white wine. However, the more common toasting wine for celebrations, weddings and anniversaries is of course the more stylish choice of French Champaign or any other similar sparkling wine.

If you’re serving wine without food, then you have far more options for the serving order. Although it may sound strange to think of just serving several wines without eating, this is what you will encounter if you attended any sort of wine tasting party. The only food you’ll be offered will be plain so as to clear the palette, like bread or basic cheeses.

A rosé wine is the classic aperitif in many Mediterranean regions, particularly France , and is also highly recommended served chilled on its own for hot summer afternoons or evenings. It can be romantic, joyous and fun and is a great match to many simple appetizers.

Fortified wines are generally consumed alone, often served as aperitifs, and/or offered at the end of a meal instead of a brandy or a liqueur. These are wines to be slowly sipped while discussing the finesse and the quality of the product during relaxing and calm moments.

Wine offers more thrilling complexity than any other beverage – intricate layering of aromas, more diversity of flavour, more spirit. Which means wine is absolutely the most perfect match for the complex, varied dishes available in the international cuisine of our times. An exciting wine and food match can elevate a great meal to an unforgettable one.

The old rule about white wine with fish and red wine with meat made perfect sense in the days when white wines were mostly light and fruity and red wines were mostly tannic and weighty. A critical factor in our changing taste for wine is undoubtedly the revolution in the sort of food we eat. The old rules don’t take into consideration the complexity of today’s multi-ethnic and subtly flavoured foods and the corresponding wide range of wines from around the world that are now conveniently available to almost everyone. Delicate red wines may go beautifully with classic French, Italian and European cuisine, but it is often out of its depth with the sort of sweet and spicy dishes that are increasingly popular worldwide.

Consequently, the choice of simply red or white is no longer valid. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The best pairing is good food, good wine and good company. So the first rule of thumb is to make sure the food is good and the wine is, too. Even if the match is not perfect, you will still enjoy what you’re drinking. After all, wine and food generally work well together – there are only a limited number of combinations which really should be avoided.

Time of year, weather and the nature of the function, will help to determine which wine to choose. Red wines are distinct from whites in two main ways: tannins and flavours. Tannin is a chemical compound derived from the skin of the grape. Tannin is what makes your mouth pucker and feel dry when you first drink a full-bodied red wine. Basically, light-bodied or soft red wines have low tannin, medium bodied reds have moderate tannin, and full-bodied reds have a lot of tannin. White and red wines share many common flavours; both can be spicy, buttery, leathery, earthy or floral. But the apple, pear and citrus flavours in many white wines seldom show up in reds, and the currant, cherry and stone fruit flavours of red grapes usually do not appear in whites. In the wine-and-food matching game, these flavour differences become mere subtleties.

The secret to matching wine and food is balance. So long as a wine balances its sugar with enough natural acidity, a match can work. There is a simple way to make successful wine and food pairings, requiring only that you consider the weight of both the wine and the food when making a decision about what to pour with what you’ll be serving and eating. In plain terms, this means that wine and food sharing broadly similar proportions and characteristics tend to go well together.

Like human beings, wines come in all dimensions. To match them with food, it’s useful to know where they fit in a spectrum, with the lightest wines at one end and fuller-bodied wines toward the other end. Match delicate tastes with delicate wines; moderately flavoured food with unassertive, medium-bodied wines; strong wines with food that has plenty of personality and so on. Rich heavyweight foods, like game, roast meats and red meat casseroles, need a full-bodied wine. Powerful red wines are often the favoured choice, although it is the body of the wine which is the most important consideration rather than its colour or flavour. Always remember the contribution of the sauce. A rich creamy sauce will need a wine of sufficient body to match the food and flavours that will complement the smooth, creamy, buttery taste.

Consequently, you can make better wine choices by focusing on a wine’s weight. If you balance the wine with the food by choosing one that will seem about the same weight as the food, you raise the odds dramatically that the match will succeed. Lighter wines will balance nicely against chicken salad, salmon, grilled cheese and white sauce. A very dry wine (Riesling or Xynisteri) is perfect when teamed with veal, shrimps, cream sauces and turkey. You should avoid spicy foods with white wines. Merlot is perfectly matched with grilled meats such as barbecued red meat and chicken. A dish like pork or lasagne is best paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Of course there are always exceptions to any rule. You can serve whatever you like to drink or you think your guests will like. It can also vary depending on the season. An afternoon garden party would lend itself well to a chilled, crisp, white or refreshing rosé, whereas a robust red might be more suitable for an evening meal in mid winter. Rosé wines can be drunk at room temperature with pleasure, but for most palates they work best served chilled. A perfectly chilled glass of white wine refreshes the parts that red wine can’t at this time of year. Certain styles work better as summer drinks, and others as winter drinks.

Most people probably don’t think much about the proper serving order for wines, but serving or drinking wine in the right order can make a big difference. Serving or drinking wines in the wrong order can negatively affect both the taste of the wines as well as the taste of the food, so paying attention to which wines are served when can enhance the meal, helping everyone enjoy both their wine and their food all the more.

Some people may only drink a single wine over the course of a meal, but it’s not uncommon to have a couple of different wines served with different courses of the meal. You should always have both white and red wine on hand. In general, foods go from lighter and simpler (appetizers) to heavier and more complex (main course) and finally to the sweet dessert. Wines should follow a progression as well. If you pair well with the foods, then they will naturally follow this progression. But in general we start with lighter white wines or sparkling wines, move to more full bodied whites, on to lighter red wines, to fuller bodied reds and end with a sweet dessert wine (if you are serving one). You can end the evening with higher-quality, higher-alcohol port, sherry, and after-dinner (digestif) wines – assuming anyone is still standing by this point, of course.

All wines are best served at their correct temperature, as they will be able to breathe and create the perfect mix of aromas that will delight the senses and impress your guests. Serving the wine at the correct temperature may be a difference of whether the wine will be ideal to drink for maximum aroma and taste, and may make or break a charming dinner experience for you and your guests. Normally a bottle of wine could take up to three hours before it is appropriately chilled in the refrigerator. A great way to chill your wine to perfection fast and easily is to place your bottle into a bucket filled with ice and a sprinkling of salt. Push the wine into the depths of the ice to quickly chill the bottle.

Food and wine pairing is a highly subjective and inexact process. There’s considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine. The goal is synergy and balance. The wine shouldn’t overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine. A good match will bring out the nuances and enhance the flavours and unique characteristics of both the food and the wine. With a little information, a lot of enthusiasm and a propensity to explore and experiment, you will find many wine and food combinations that greatly enhance your dining experience.

Wine News and Information

■ In recent years, Hong Kong has become an important centre for fine-wine auctions. A considerable quantity of fine-wine that would once have stayed in the US and moved between American cellars can now be found in Asia, particularly Hong Kong and mainland China . But many of the fine-wine brokers, traders and merchants who cluster around London and represent a considerable proportion of the world’s fine-wine activity will have nothing to do with wine bought in the US and Asia. Gary Boom, who founded Bordeaux Index in London in 1997, explained that stock that has been across the oceans and back has too many risks attached.

Simon Staples of Berry Bros & Rudd is in a similar position. “I really would not buy for myself a case of anything older than 2001 from anyone unless I know where it’s been. There have been far too many experiences of badly stored older wine compared to perfect stock. Provenance and good storage are the key issues, rather than the blanket ‘ France = good’ and ‘anywhere else = bad’. We would not, for example, buy wine that has been stored next to a hot kitchen in the south of France , but we would buy wine that has been stored in a cold cellar in Sweden or Denmark .”

Chris Davies of fine-wine traders Turville Valley Wines has even come across wines whose back labels had been deliberately removed because they cited a US importer. But since these back labels also carried the information on volume and alcoholic strength that is mandatory in the EU, the wine was thus rendered unsaleable in Europe . It should be noted however that many of these brokers, traders and merchants, including Bordeaux Index, now have an outpost in Hong Kong .

■ Members of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research have submitted a detailed review of the draft recently circulated by the United States Department of Agriculture for proposed new US Dietary Guidelines for 2010. In general, Forum members were very pleased with the alcohol recommendations in the proposal, finding them interesting, balanced, and accurate. Many commented that, rather than just focusing on warnings against heavy drinking, the new Guidelines appear to take into account the large amount of recent epidemiologic and experimental data that support many potential beneficial health effects of moderate drinking.

Among specific recommendations from the Forum were the following:

* A stronger statement is needed of the effects of light-to-moderate drinking on total mortality, in that recent prospective studies show a considerably lower of risk of death for moderate drinkers.

* Additional emphasis is needed on the reduced risk of developing diabetes for moderate drinkers, and the much lower risk of cardiovascular disease among diabetics who consume some alcohol.

* Further information should be presented on the consistent scientific data showing that women who drink moderately are at reduced, not increased, risk of weight gain in adult life.

Monolithos Monthly News

A bottle of wine is the elegant result of a very laborious, time-consuming and sometimes messy process for our family winery, especially during the period mid-August to the end of October. During these few weeks, the two most crucial steps in the wine production, namely harvesting and fermentation, are completed. After the tank fermentation, the wine will be racked off the lees (the remaining post-fermentation solids) into another tank. Here the wine will stay until ready to be blended, aged, filtered and finally bottled.

Currently, all 2009 wines are available in limited quantities for tasting and purchasing. 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 call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and would leave you with the words of Robert Mondavi, "Harvests of Joy," Autobiography

"Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind."

The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: August 2010

Dear Friends of Monolithos
What type of wine and where best to buy are two of the many contentious topics in the world of wine. The heated debate raises a number of questions such as: Why do your wine shopping at your local mega-stores and limit yourself to a small selection of the big name winemakers? What about buying an untried wine or shopping directly from a winery? What is the difference between a “boutique” wine (such as Monolithos) and a “commercial” wine? What does “small winery” really mean? Are all boutique wines good? Do the big corporations make quality wine?

It’s fair to say that most of us enjoy a nice glass of wine, but in this day and age, finding a perfect example which is agreeable to the palate and to the wallet is not always easy. The occasional wine buyer is most likely to grab a bottle at the local supermarket when completing the food shopping. This is the most accessible and quickest way to bring a bottle home, and is fine for buying a wine that is already known to the wine drinker. The average consumer views wine in much the same way as they would treat flour, milk, fruit juice or instant coffee. As long as the quality is adequate and the price is right, consumers aren’t too worried about the source. More than 70% of wine sales worldwide are done this way. It’s pretty obvious that an inferior product sitting on the retailer’s shelf is far more likely to be purchased than the superior product that sits in a cellar some place.

Wine’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent decades, but at the same time, wine has become a commodity: grapes are grown, crushed and made into wine, which is then sold cheaply and consumed uncritically. Much of that growth came through wine shops and supermarkets. Consequently, large-scale producers target larger market segments that are served through supermarkets and mega-stores. With supermarkets selling an increasing proportion of wine in many markets, mass wine producers are better positioned to take advantage of this trend towards high volumes and low margins. Thanks to a wave of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic investments, the world’s top wine companies now control labels in countries all over the globe. Do these corporations make successful wines? Of course they do, since success in the wine business is measured by how well you can sell your product, not how good your product is. Larger wineries have a big advantage when it comes to distributing their products. They usually have dealings with distributors who guarantee their products will get into the marketplace. The small winery, by contrast, has to beg the distributor to carry its products.

Much of the wine sold in supermarkets is mass-produced in giant winemaking facilities that generate millions of bottles each year. Increasingly, wine production is being driven by the needs of the supermarket and high street wine buyers, who claim that their requirements are driven by what people want to buy. There is therefore a huge commercial pressure towards bland,
“commercial” branded wines produced in large volumes to hit the right price points. Mass production typically uses automated systems to permit very high rates of production per worker, turning out high volumes of inexpensive finished goods. The main advantages of bulk production wine is derived from the standardized processes, consistency of products, cost and time savings,
increase productivity, less skill requirement by personnel, significant reductions in inventory and economies of scale. Large wineries can become more profitable through vertical integration of their distribution systems and aggressively segmenting their products and services to take advantage of market opportunities.

From a distribution perspective, drinks are all liquid (also heavy, usually fragile, and must be protected from temperature variations) and need to be delivered on time, and managed in accounts. Because of economies of scale, a large corporation generally has access to cheaper costs of goods than smaller companies. Most importantly, large global wine companies are able to
optimize their cost of goods in every market they choose to enter. The controversy over the corporations’ role centres on the issue of wine quality. Not all wine they sell is noteworthy. In fact, mass production and the use of low-quality grapes have brought forth a new class of wine known as “plonk”. The latter is defined as wine which does not belong to a designation of origin or other quality indication or specification of origin. Plonk is a low-quality wine, usually made for the non-discriminating masses. Quite often these wines are made from 3rd and 4th pressings. Stores everywhere are loaded with tasteless wines – both domestic and foreign –
that offer no distinction in taste between grapes or brands. Nowadays, bulk-quality wine is widely found in standard 750 ml, 1 or 2 litre plastic PET bottles, five-litre demi-johns, Tetrapaks and even cans. The low price of a few euros per litre makes them a hit as an everyday wine. The supermarkets deserve some credit for the work they have done popularising wine, but now they’re slowly killing the sector they once helped develop. People have no idea that the wine they are drinking is a cheap, mass-produced beverage.

The interest in drinking wine stems not only from the fact that it can taste nice, but also because of such factors as grape varieties, vintage variations, regions, producers, “terroir”, ageing ability and winemaking techniques. One of the things that separated for centuries wine from other alcoholic drinks is that it is an agricultural product, not a manufactured one. The diversity of wine is bewildering. Not only are hundreds of different grape varieties in relatively common use, but there are also the complex influences of soil types, climate, viticulture and winemaking practices. Consequently, the diversity – and the link to geography – that makes wine so interesting is under real threat. However, the blame for this loss of diversity doesn’t reside solely at the door of the supermarket buyers. They are operating under fairly tight commercial constraints. First, they need serious volume, as smaller volumes
generally can’t be offered for sale effectively in the global market. This is inevitable, since a big winery is required to supply all the wine-selling outlets, consequently, wine must be produced at an industrial level, which means silos of wine and an enormous amount of grapes going into these huge factories. As wine is treated more like a manufactured product and becomes
more divorced from agriculture, it usually becomes less interesting, but it is these wines that appeal to supermarket buyers who want volume, continuous supply and uniformity of quality. Second, they claim that it’s only certain styles of wine that will sell. Big wineries play it safe because they must. They have too large an audience to risk alienating anyone. They will not
create the most original wines of limited production precisely because their audience is too large, and you can’t expect them to list wines that people are not buying. Supermarkets and other multiple outlets don’t like dealing with the diversity and complexity of wine, but they are quite attached to the “idea” of diversity. So typically they will stock hundreds of different lines, giving the shopper the impression of a broad portfolio of wines. The problem
here is that this diversity is actually an illusory one. The wines are almost always industrially produced, in large quantities, and to a formula. It makes life a little easier for the supermarket critics, because they can effectively do their job just by picking wines more or less at random. Plus, there are almost no surprises when you drink a commonly known wine. You know what you are getting before you even open a bottle. Most of these commercial wines appear lifeless and without any charm. Some companies alter their wines so much, that it’s not even wine any longer. While large-scale wine production often results in Coca-Cola-like product
uniformity, that doesn’t mean that the wines – or their production methods – are necessarily bad. Consistency is actually what a lot of people want; they take comfort in the fact that the bottle of wine they’re buying is going to taste just like the last one they opened. This automatically rules out a lot of the more interesting wines. Now, consistency is not the same as quality, however, consistency is not a bad thing in itself. It’s when you’re consistently mediocre that you have to watch out.

The world’s top-selling wine brands are produced in massive quantities in huge winemaking facilities. As most countries are going through the effects of the recession, sales of inexpensive wines have rocketed, while sales of premium, highly priced selections have lagged or stalled. The majority of consumers are looking for anything under €10 a bottle or even €5.
Why don’t commercial wineries get any respect? Some do, but most of them don’t. It’s mainly due to the fact that the majority of these producers are not even involved in the winemaking process. The picture of the vineyard is often on the label, and it doesn’t show a factory – it show rows and rows of grapes on the vine. Commercial wineries are there for mass production and
the associated profit, not the grape itself. The larger winery doesn’t need to be as good. So if, as a big winery, you know you are going to be able to penetrate the market, why spend big sums of money, even if you have it, to make a better product?

The situation isn’t the same as for a small winery, where the product had better be good, or else. Wine is a domain linked with romanticism, and there’s a certain feeling out there that small is beautiful – tiny operations generally yield more interesting, higher quality wines than
larger operations. A small winery producing small amounts can call itself a “boutique”, but that doesn’t mean it makes good quality wine. In the same way, bigger grounds and bigger production numbers don’t mean that quality is lacking in their wines.

There are many wineries that call themselves “boutique” wineries. It sounds a lot more elegant and fashionable to say you picked up the Shiraz blend from a boutique winery. You are sure to impress your dinner guests, but someone at the table is bound to ask: how are boutique wineries different from regular wineries?

The word “boutique” is defined as a “small, exclusive business offering customised service”. A boutique winery is a small business producing a few hundred to less than 10,000 cases per year, and usually the bottles are a bit more expensive than the stuff coming out of the bigger wineries. Boutique wineries are usually family-run businesses where the owner is also
the winemaker. They might only specialise in one or two grape varieties, although some boutique wineries produce a number of different wine types. Whereas everyone knows about the big players, smaller distributors often get business by word of mouth.

Are boutique wineries better? No reasonable person can make such a declaration about all the small wineries in the world. However, it is not an exaggeration to state that some of the best wines in the world come from the small wine boutiques. This is because the wines produced at specific wineries are the rare product of selected grape varieties in the right vineyards, the most important factor to achieving authentic wines. Big wineries must fill a big demand. Where the small winery can, for example, pick and choose its grapes, the larger winery is forced to buy huge quantities, where its control over quality can’t match that of its smaller
competitor.

Winemaking is a mastery that requires many years of experience, knowledge, and skill. A good winemaker has a passion for a specific expression of a specific grape or blend of grapes. Most small wineries are located near the vineyards, thereby minimising the distance from producing the grapes to bottling the wine. It follows that something produced in smaller quantities must be of better quality than something mass-produced. Because the volumes are smaller at a boutique winery, the winemaking process is a lot more hands-on than it would be at a big winery. The winemaker can keep a closer eye on the process and manipulate it to achieve his or her goals. This thorough process, the passion, dedication and expertise allow them to deliver wines made in a unique style to the market in an honest way. Boutique wineries are also known for the personal touches they put on their wines. Most boutique wineries design their own labels and market their wine themselves, or sometimes not at all. Customers who try their wine usually come back for more – not just for appeal of buying an exclusive wine, but usually because the quality is good. Each wine that is produced under such conditions has its own unique flavour and this is why it is so popular to a wine collector.

The small wineries do have some cost advantages over the larger ones. A larger winery is a big corporation, with layers of management, and a department for this and a department for that. All that cost needs to get passed on to the consumer. By contrast, small wineries do not have a personnel department because they mainly rely on family members. They may lack the resources of a big winery, but what resources they have largely go into the making of the wines. Boutique wines give the wine lover the opportunity to enjoy a wine of distinction, meet the people behind it and understand the philosophy behind the product first-hand and often in situ. The skills of owner-managers, who are winemakers, viticulturists and marketers, make it easier to stay focused. The main benefit (of being a small producer) is that you can literally keep your arms around every barrel, keep your nose in each barrel on a regular basis and know each drop of wine intimately. You can’t do that at higher production levels. It is important to note that not all boutique wines are equal in quality, and limited production does not always mean superior. Smaller doesn’t always mean better. The key to finding a superb boutique wine is to look beyond the production size and discover why the winemaker chose to make a slightly different and more selective variety. When a good vintage is produced, it won’t be around forever. That bottle is purchased and held onto until a special occasion arises.

The small wineries do face several challenges, including becoming known, competing for shelf space and finding distributors. The boutique wineries use various strategies to succeed. In addition to pouring at charity events, they rely heavily on direct sales to customers, wine events, internet sales and particularly through tasting rooms. Some sell to local wine shops, supermarkets and restaurants. Many boutiques focus on making a few specialized wines, including alternative varietals, in order to create a niche.

Boutique wines are often more expensive than mass-produced, commercialized wines, but the extra cost is often counter-balanced by the quality, rarity and authenticity of their wines. Some produce wines are far too expensive and not great quality, others are definitely international class, but all are making wines of individual character with pride and passion. There is enormous variety. Ultimately, your own taste buds should be the judges. If you really want to be sure the wine you’re buying isn’t made from bulk juice produced at some other location, look for information on the label. Of course, that’s no guarantee that you’re going to enjoy the wine in the bottle, but at least you’ll know where it came from and who made it. As big wineries get bigger, the niche for very small, artisan winemakers crafting distinctive, uniquely styled and esoteric wines grows too. Micro-wineries of a few hundred or couple thousand cases will satisfy that ongoing need in our society for the arts, originality, personality, creativity and spirituality.

Wine News and Information
. Enjoying a bottle of wine with friends automatically makes any bottle a good one, but it’s even better if it’s properly chilled. The Trudeau Digital Wine Thermometer makes it easy to determine the temperature without opening the bottle. When the gadget is in contact with a bottle, a temperature sensor automatically reads the temperature with the help of an LCD display. Featuring a stainless steel cuff that slips on to the neck of the bottle, the portable thermometer goes wherever a bottle of wine can go. With recommended serving temperatures printed directly on the cuff, the easy-to-use accessory allows wine drinkers to decide what to open and when. Enjoying the wine is then easy, which just leaves the hard part: getting everybody to agree on which particular variety to drink.

. Dutch researchers suggest small amounts of alcohol may lower the risk of developing several arthritic conditions. Researchers at Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, associate low alcohol consumption – drinking less alcohol than those in the control group – with a significantly lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ratisteoarthritis, spondylarthropathy, psoriatic arthritis and reactive arthritis. Lead author Dr. Annekoos Leonoor Huidekoper said another interesting finding was the degree of systemic inflammation in patients was shown to increase as the amount of alcohol consumed decreased. The researchers say there may several explanations for their findings, including the possibility some alcohol in low amounts could help protect against the development of systemic inflammation. The finding was presented at the annual congress of the European League against Rheumatism in Rome.

. France’s appellation system may soon be homogenised into globally recognised brands. The proposed new Vins de France category allows French producers and brand owners to blend wines across different regions to produce wines consistent in quality and style. These wines are designed to appeal to younger consumers at lower price levels, marketed by their grape variety, not origin. According to French wine official Valérie Pajotin, director of Anivin de France, French wine will end up “like Coca-Cola”, with many producers opting out of appellation systems in favour of adopting the generic “Vins de France” brand.

Monolithos Monthly News

August, September and October mark the annual season for grape harvesting for most vine growing areas of Cyprus. The exact time of harvesting changes from year to year based on weather conditions, vineyard location and grape variety. Grapes from international varieties in vineyards located at altitudes lower than 600m are ready for harvesting in August. The indigenous vines are picked in September. For the village of Pachna, this is the busiest time of the year. Traditional hand-harvesting is the only practice in the region and therefore, picking only healthy bunches is relatively easier.

An early wine grape harvest is certain this year. The mild winter, good rainfall, early spring, and hot sunny weather so far this summer have put vineyards about two full weeks ahead of schedule. Normally the harvest of early-ripening varieties begins right after the third week of August and other varieties two to four weeks later. This year we are planning to commence harvesting on Saturday 14 August. Other dates scheduled for grape picking are the 21 and 28 August. Unless there is a drastic change in the weather, we anticipate that 4 and 11 September will be the final dates for this year’s harvest.

Monolithos Winery ensures that the grapes are cut from the vine in the cool, early morning hours, placed in small plastic cases and transported directly to the winery for crushing. Great pains are taken to escalate the process, while keeping the grapes from becoming too warm during the transport from vineyard to crusher.

All Monolithos wines (2009 vintage) 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 call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and
would leave you with the words of a French proverb:

“The best use of bad wine is to drive away poor relations.”

Regards from all of us here at Monolithos

The Cyprus Wine blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: July 2010

Thousands of years ago, man created the best social beverage – wine. Worldwide culture, society, geographical conditions and other factors have allowed countries to make their own kinds of wine. Today, wine is considered a must to complement any evening or special occasion meal. It is available in countless varieties and classifications, and whether you are partial to a red or white wine, you are bound to find one that will suit your palette. The winemaker has many options once he or she decides what type of wine to produce. The decisions made in the winery will determine how dry or sweet, fruity, aromatic, complex, concentrated, oaky, and high in alcohol and body the finished wine will be.

All wines are made from grapes, and this is where the differences between the different types of wines begin. There are actually at least five basic types of wines: white, red, rosé, dessert and fortified wines, and lastly sparkling wine and Champagne .

White Wine: Almost every white wine is made with white grapes. This is because when white wine is made, the juice is separated from the skins before the fermentation process begins. The liquid is not white but clear in appearance. The flavours, textures and aromas will depend upon the appellation, the type of grapes, the vintage and the wine making styles of a winemaker. White wines have very little pigmentation and the grape skins have little tannin. Winemakers control sweetness by stopping fermentation before all the natural grape sugar has been turned into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the yeast. Temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks keep the heat that is produced during fermentation from literally cooking the white wine.

It is also possible to produce white wine using black grapes, as the juice of some varieties is actually clear following crushing and de-stemming. Therefore the skins are immediately removed from the juice to prevent colouration.

For most dry white wines, the period from fermentation to bottling the wine takes only a few months, so these wines are bottled as little as six months after harvest. Light, dry, white wines age more quickly than any other type of wine and are for early drinking. White wines are generally fruity, which means that they have aromas of fresh tropical fruits, such as pineapple or mango, and citrus fruits, such as lemon or grapefruit.

White wines can be drunk on any occasion: before, with or after a meal, and even between meals. They are often considered as aperitif wines, sometimes as dessert wines. Many people like to drink white wine in hot weather, as its refreshing qualities are well known. It should be served fresh at temperatures ranging between 7ºC to 12ºC.

Red Wine: Red wine grapes, like white wine grapes, are grown in several regions of the world. The wine’s reddish colour comes from leaving the grape skins in the juice during the fermentation process. Essentially, red wines are made from black grapes, which have been crushed and de-stemmed. Instead of filtering the skins from the juice, everything is transferred to open top tanks and continuously stirred so the flavour and colour from the skins will become infused with the wine during fermentation. Red wines must be fermented with their black grape skins for approximately 10 to 14 days, and sometimes even longer. This prolonged maceration and fermentation allows for the maximum extraction of red colour and flavour from the skins.

Generally heavier than white wines, reds have more tannin, which a natural substance found in grape skins and contributes to the flavour of the wine. A winemaker is careful not to extract too much tannin from grape skins or the wine will taste very astringent and bitter from hard tannins. Soft tannins, however, add a desirable tactile and dry complexity to the taste of the wine and contribute to its longevity, since tannin is a natural preservative, enabling red wine to be aged longer than white.

The wine that is the end result will vary greatly, depending not only upon the type of grape grown, but several other factors. The best red wine is one in which all these factors come together perfectly to make a beautifully balanced, delicious wine, and is perfect to accompany red meat, pasta, and grilled food of all types.

Rosé Wine: Rosé wine process can be divided into three methods. The first is when the rosé wine is a main product. A rosé gets its characteristic deeper rose colour from black grapes that have been crushed and left in the tank with their skins for 24 to 36 hours – just long enough to turn the clear juice into a dark pink colour. Then the juice is quickly pressed away from the skins. If the skins had been in contact with the juice for a few more hours, a red wine would have been produced, which is why some say rosé is halfway to being a red wine.

The second method of rosé wine process is by bleeding. This means that should the winemaker decide to impart more tannin and colour to a red wine, he can remove some pink juice at an early stage (12 to 24 hours) in a process known as bleeding the vats. The juice is fermented separately, therefore making rosé a derivative of the red wine.

The final way to produce rosé wine is blending. Blending is a simple mixture of red and white wine to impart colour. This process is not very uncommon, however, it is no longer allowed in Europe and most wine growing regions.

Rosé wines are known for their mild colour, which can be anything between onion to a deep shade of pink. The intensity of the colour is determined to a great extent by the grape variety. Rosé wines are much softer than reds They do not usually contain high levels of alcohol or tannin, and can be made either as dry or medium-dry wines.

The rosé is a relatively young addition to the wine family and came onto the market shortly after the Second World War. Since then, rosé wine has become very popular worldwide. Most rosés are still wines, meaning non-sparkling, and have lovely berry aromas and flavours from the black grapes used for their production. Many people choose rosé wines for their crispness and lightness, which are very refreshing in hot weather, leading to them being often referred to as summer wines. Today, good rosé wines have gained respectably as the perfect addition to almost any party, and are best served chilled. A popular version of rosé wine has sparkle added to it. Drinking rosé wine can be good for you, as it has most of the health benefits that red wine has.

Fortified and dessert wines or liqueur wines: Certain wines can be fortified by the addition of extra alcohol in the form of brandy or spirits to bring them up to an alcohol content of 18% to 20%. If the extra alcohol is added after fermentation, a dry fortified wine such as Sherry is the outcome. Adding alcohol during fermentation results in a sweet wine such as Porto . Marsala is made from white grapes grown on the volcanic soil of the island of Sicily , Italy . Marsala has a burnt caramel flavour and is 18% to20% alcohol, like all fortified wines. Vermouth, made in the Piedmont area of northwest Italy , is used worldwide as a cocktail on its own or in cocktails. All Vermouth is fortified wine with many herbal ingredients based on secret family recipes from long ago. Three types of Vermouth exist: rosso is a sweet red, bianco is a medium-sweet white, and secco is a dry white used in Martinis.

Dessert wine is made from very ripe grapes whose fermentation stops automatically when the alcohol level rises over 15%. At this level of alcohol, the wine yeasts die and no longer ferment any more grape sugar, leaving the wine sweet. At what point the fermentation stops is really determined by the winemaker, who controls the sweetness of the outcome by chilling the wine so low that fermentation stops, or by filtering out the yeast so there is no more yeast to continue fermentation. Of course, it also depends on how sweet the grapes were to begin with. Very ripe late harvest grapes can be twice as high in natural sugar as grapes that are used to make dry wines. That’s why we must depend on Mother Nature to cooperate in the vineyard, or these great dessert wines simply cannot be made. Commandaria of Cyprus belongs to this category of wines and is made from sun-dried grapes.

Like dinner wines, white dessert wines are generally served chilled. Red dessert wines are served at room temperature or slightly chilled. Dessert wines are especially good with fresh bakery sweets and fruits. It is best to save heavier tastes for winter, lighter tastes for summer. Of course, the ideal way to decide which dessert wines to serve, and whether to serve it with an actual dessert, is to taste several and figure out what suits your own palate!

Sparkling wine and Champagne: Sparkling wine is easy to distinguish from table wine because it has bubbles. The process of making sparkling wine can take months, even years. Sparkling wine is popular worldwide and is produced in all of the major winemaking regions. The most famous sparkling wine is Champagne ! The first step is to have a “base wine” which is usually made from very acidic grapes, giving it an unpleasant taste. The next step involves getting the bubbles into the wine.

There are three methods that can be used here: carbonation, transfer method and méthode champenoise. Carbonation, the same method used to produce soft drinks, is the cheapest. Carbon dioxide is pumped into a wine tank and then the wine is bottled under pressure to prevent the bubbles from escaping. The transfer method is when a sweetened base wine has yeast added to it and is allowed to ferment a second time in an enclosed tank so that the building carbon dioxide cannot escape. After fermentation, the wine is then clarified and re-sweetened if necessary before being bottled under pressure. This method is used to produce medium price range sparkling wine. The final method is méthode champenoise, which is when the wine has a second fermentation inside the bottle. This method is used to produce the best quality sparkling wines.

Sparkling rosé wine is especially very famous as it is one of the few wines that tastes really good with the sparkle, rather than without it. After carbon dioxide is added during bottling, sparkling rosé wine is ready but once opened, the contents will fizz out. Sparkling rose wine has a carbon dioxide pressure of over 2.5 atmospheres in the bottled condition, whereas semi-sparkling rose wine has a carbon dioxide pressure of 1 to 2.5 atmospheres.

Wines can have their season. Winter warmers are the big, full-bodied reds that provide comfort on a chilly night, while uncomplicated, fruity whites and rosés hit the spot on a sunny summer’s afternoon. Several minor problems can inhibit your favourite beverage being enjoyed to the full. All too often, wine is drunk at the wrong temperature – too warm, or not cold enough.

Below is a quick reference guide for the correct serving temperature, storing and preservation of both wine and champagne:

· Red wine, usually between 14°C and 20°C, and despite the general rule that red wines should not be chilled, most young red wines are best chilled during summer.

· White and rosé wines are usually kept in a fridge or wine cooler at 5°C and 8°C. In hot countries, they should be placed in a fridge before serving so as to make sure they are adequately chilled to optimum temperature.

· Champagne and sparkling wines again store between 3°C and 5°C and could be kept in a separate fridge or cooler.

· It is far better to use a wine cooler when serving white wines and rosés. When serving Champagne and sparkling wines, half fill an bucket with ice and water – this method keeps the wine chilled to perfection. Also, to achieve the professional touch, place a white serving cloth over the bucket for handling the bottle.

· Summer is the perfect time to serve wine. However, it is important to follow the golden rule of “everything in moderation”, and try not to exceed two or three small glasses per day to ensure that you take full advantage of the benefits that wine has to offer. As is always said, moderation is the key to taking complete advantage of all the health benefits wine has to offer. If consumed in moderate quantities, not exceeding one to two glasses a day, any wine has good health benefits. So enjoy your wine of preference, whether still or sparkling, red, white or rosé, and give it to your nearest and dearest.

· Also, remember that during hot weather in the summer, when travelling in hot countries or when exercising strenuously, you need to drink more water than usual to make up for the fluid lost by sweating.

Wine News and Information

The latest anti-ageing weapon is not an injection or a wonder cream, and it doesn’t involve any nipping or tucking either. It’s a glass of red wine a day for women and two for men, according to Richard A. Baxter, MD, a plastic surgeon in Seattle and the author of “Age Gets Better with Wine”. Baxter gave a talk on wine and beauty at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Washington , D.C. The mechanism is the antioxidants in red wine. Antioxidants sop up damaging free radicals that play a role in ageing and age-related diseases. There is a much higher concentration of antioxidants called polyphenols, including resveratrol, in wine compared to grape juice. In wine, the skin and seeds are part of the fermenting process, but both are removed when making grape juice. Stress has something to do with it, too. It is difficult to sort out how much of the benefits are from the chemical properties of wine versus the types of behaviours that wine drinkers tend to have, such as less stress in their lives. Wine is part of the Mediterranean diet, which is also rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, seafood, yogurt, and olive oil. This diet is more of a lifestyle that includes drinking wine with dinner. Studies show that the Mediterranean diet is associated with longer, healthier lives.

Drinking a glass of red wine a day is the single most important thing that you can do, other than non-smoking, from an anti-ageing point of view, but you can have too much of a good thing. Drinking more than recommended can have the opposite effect on your appearance and health.

Monolithos Wines Summer Suggestions

Summer calls for summer food, and summer food calls for summer wines – wines that are light, chilly, and not too restrained so that they leave you light and relaxed.

Your summer choice might be a glass of something simple, like an inexpensive white wine, but you may be surprised to know that this could include a range of rosé and red wines. Every wine has its time and place. With just a little bit of effort, you can drink wines that are interesting, that will make all of your summer dishes taste even better. Either way, it’s a sure thing that on a warm sunny day, sitting in your back garden after you've pulled out all that garden furniture from the shed that you thought you’d get so much use out of, nothing can beat a nice glass of chilled wine!

If you like to play host from time to time, you will undoubtedly want to make sure you serve the right wine with the right food. Half the fun of a wine party is experimenting for yourself to see what new combinations you can come up with, so here are some tips to start you off:

· Every wine gives off a different and unique aroma all of its own. Some wines have a lighter and dryer palette, while others are bolder and more complex. It is the palette of the wine that has to be taken into consideration when pairing it with food. Start with light and easy-to-prepare summer foods – salads, grilled vegetables, and seafood. The wine you choose should have that same elegant nonchalance. Consider a bottle of Monolithos White Dry or an Ayios Stephanos White, both of which have a crisp, citrus, fruity taste that makes them ideal with many warm-weather dishes, making even the most basic dishes – say, grilled chicken, chicken souvlaki, vegetables doused with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon, swordfish souvlaki, pasta dishes or pizza – seem like the most special meals.

· The Monolithos Rosé, well chilled, while it does not need to be served with food, can enhance sandwiches, ham, pork, chicken and seafood salads. It can actually add some complexity and spirit to your light summer foods, like cold roast chicken, smoked meats, and potato salad. Monolithos rosé wines, both still and sparkling, are fruity and match well with hamburgers, tuna steaks, grilled vegetables, mushrooms, and barbecued chicken. Serve the most recent vintage – it will taste fresher. The vast majority of rosé wines don’t age, so there’s no point in keeping them from one year to the next. They are light, fresh and delightful (and usually low in alcohol), absolutely perfect after dinner with fresh berries, chilled melon, berry compotes, poached pears, fruit pies and tarts, cookies, and custards. Serving summer wine cocktails, rosé wines would also be a refreshing way to keep your guests cool on a hot summer day.

· Barbecue doesn’t just mean beer. Try Monolithos Red or Ayios Stephanos Red but be sure to chill it slightly (14°C). It’s summer in Cyprus , after all! The diffused flavours of light and medium reds are far better and more concentrated when the wine is slightly chilled. Place it in iced water for five minutes or so or in the refrigerator for a half hour. A chilled, young red wine with pork souvlaki or kebabs would be a most delightful summer evening meal. Another possibility is a well chilled Monolithos Merlot. And these aren’t the only reds that can be chilled. If you’ve never tried our young 2009 Shiraz , fresh with poached salmon, hot or cold, you owe it to yourself.

· A unique pairing of party styles, this collaboration blends the relaxed atmosphere of a BBQ with the slightly sophisticated influence of a wine tasting using any or even all Monolithos red wines (Mavro, Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz and Ayios Stephanos blend). This tasting combination will ensure to create an evening of fun and great entertainment for all who attend.

· If your menu includes cheeses, you should be aware that some say a general rule of thumb is that white wines go with soft cheeses and red wines go with hard. But this is not necessarily the case. Others say that cheeses and wines from the same geographical regions should be paired together. But there are so many things that influence the flavour of both that are constantly changing. Still others say that the flavour and texture, not the colour or region, is what makes the pairings interesting. This means that simple, creamy cheeses work best with light, crisp wines that have a mild fruity flavour, and that those full-bodied wines are the perfect partner for robust cheeses. Ultimately, the way to find the perfect pairing for you is to determine your personal preference through tasting.

· Although you may have heard that red wines should be served in round, deep glasses and sparkling wines in tall flutes, the glass itself will not make or break the enjoyment of your wine. Conventionally, red wines are served in bigger glasses than whites. In fact, the ideal wine glass tends to be surprisingly big, and there is no reason why you cannot use it for either red or white wines. The good news is that the ideal wine glass need not be expensive. It should, however, be uncut and uncoloured. Wine is beautiful, so why obscure its brilliance and clarity? The bowl of the glass should taper slightly towards the rim. This traps the aromas released when you swirl the glass, rather than allowing them to disperse before you can savour them. You may, however, want a set of smaller glasses that you can use for serving wine before a meal or for dessert wines, which are usually served in smaller quantities.

· When there is an urgent need to cool your wine use a bucket, ice, cold water and some salt. Put the bottle in the bucket or try one of those sleeve things (ice jackets), which are also very good. In summer, when it is hot outside and the wine is cold, just do small pours since wine in the bottle keeps colder. After you have poured wine to each and every guest, put the wine bottle in the cool bucket to make sure that it remains at a low temperature throughout the meal.

· Finally, our most important piece of advice: At all times, keep a bottle of Santa Monica white sparkling wine in the refrigerator. A chilled bottle of bubbly is indispensable for summer, as you never know when the perfect sunset will appear.

With these suggestions in mind, your social event will be enjoyable for both you and your guests. What makes a social evening really interesting is giving your guests something unexpected. However, always make certain your guests drink sensibly, and keep in mind a designated driver is always a good idea.

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:

“A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.”

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

The Cyprus Wine Blog - Monolithos Wine Dimensions: June 2010

Tourism, i.e. travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes, is one of the fastest growing industries in a national economy. It has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals worldwide, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. Tourism provides communities with an opportunity to display their region’s distinct and unique cultural and natural assets while creating employment and diversifying the regional economy. A diverse economy is one that can cope with the changes experienced in our current environment.

Tourism is an industry like any other and requires sound planning and a firm commitment from the community to make it work. Like all economic activities, the benefits of tourism may create social and environmental impacts which need to be managed through a partnership approach and appropriate planning at a local level. For this reason, tourism needs to work in partnership with the other sectors of a regional economy including primary industries, local government and community organisations to name a few. In this way, tourism is integrated into the region’s future.

Wine tourism has emerged as a strong and growing area of special interest in most wine-producing countries, and represents an increasingly significant component of regional development and economic life.

So what is wine tourism, why is it growing, and what are some of the new trends that have accelerated the traditional tasting room visit into a whole new experience?

In broad terms, wine tourism is defined as visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals, wine regions and wine shows for experiencing the enjoyment of grape wine tasting and to understand the attributes of the local wine culture. Therefore, wine tourism is designed to integrate sightseeing, leisure holidays and wine culture.

A grape growing region is an area suited by climate and soil conditions to the cultivation of a certain type of grape. Most varietal vines are cultivated not in one place only, but in several distinct regions in diverse parts of the world. Also, these areas tend to be off the beaten tourist track (although not that far off) so wine tourism can expose travellers to new and interesting areas. Wine growers are farmers, and their perspective on the local area, and life in general, tends to be different from other locals typically encountered while travelling. It is a kind of tourism highly developed in many regions around the world, and it can be as simple as hopping on a wine shuttle in Napa Valley or as complicated as renting a villa in the south of France for a month.

Wine tourism is a great way to learn about the people, culture, heritage, and customs of an area. Some of the famous wine producing regions of the world, particularly southern Europe, have been producing wine for centuries or even millennia, and the production and consumption of wine is deeply ingrained in the local culture. As the field of wine tourism continues to develop, it is important to understand what drives visitors to engage in this activity.

Wine tourists could be classified as international and domestic visitors, who visit a winery at least once while travelling in the region. For the oenophile (wine lover), wine tourism is a wonderful way to better understand “terroir”, the concept that wine makers often use to describe how the quality of the land in which the grapes are grown affects the taste of the wine. Tasting wine at a wine shop or in the comfort of home provides a hint of the terroir that produced the wine. But spending several days visiting the area, chatting with the wine makers and growers, and eating the local cuisine (which has evolved together with the wine for the two to perfectly complement each other) will provide an exceptional context for the wine and give deep insight into why and how the wine turned out the way it did.

With its wide range of benefits, including foreign-exchange earnings, the creation of both full- and part-time jobs, and the generation of secondary economic activity, wine tourism can engage local communities in promoting their heritage, generate substantial long-term wealth and sustain steady tourism growth, thus diversifying the regional economy. A diverse economy is one that can cope with the changes experienced in our current volatile economic environment. Consequently, support for and investment in the wine-tourism sector is now regarded as an essential regional-economic development strategy by governments and by the wine and tourism industries.

Wine tourism is an industry like any other and requires sound planning and a firm commitment from the community to make it work. Like all economic activities, the benefits of wine tourism may create social and environmental impacts which need to be managed through a partnership approach and appropriate planning at a local level. For this reason, tourism needs to work closely with the other sectors of a regional economy including primary industries, local government and community organisations to name a few. In this way, tourism is integrated into the region’s future.

However, the benefits from wine tourism in its wider sense for local communities go well beyond the direct economic impacts:

· Economic benefits: Visitors to a winery purchase wine and other locally produced goods and hospitality services. This spending injects new cash into the local economy.

· Employment opportunities: Wine tourism is a labour-intensive industry and creates many job opportunities, especially for young people who are then encouraged to stay in local communities. In the tourism, hospitality and recreation industries alone there are several categories of employment. Job opportunities created by tourism also assist areas experiencing the consequences of structural change.

· Diversification: Wine tourism can provide diversification, strengthening the local economy by making it less reliant on a single traditional base, such as agriculture which is subject to commodity price fluctuations. This is particularly significant for rural communities.

· Improved facilities for residents: The growth in wine tourism results in a new and expanded infrastructure, services and facilities which benefit residents, particularly in communities where these developments would otherwise not be viable. It also generates improved financial viability for community-owned facilities such as taverns, gift shops and recreational services.

· Opportunities for business: Wine tourism creates opportunities to establish new products, facilities and services, and expand existing businesses which would not otherwise be sustainable based on the resident population alone.

· Preservation of the environment, culture and heritage: Wine tourism highlights the need for proper management of local resources. Through effective policies, planning and research, tourism can ensure that the environment, heritage and indigenous culture of an area are preserved. Interpretation of a nature-based and heritage product is an important educational vehicle for promoting a better understanding of environmental and heritage values to a diverse population.

· A catalyst for residential development: In many places, visitors who initially travelled to a particular area have subsequently become residents, attracted by a better quality of life.

· Improved transport services: Wine tourism can stimulate the establishment of new and improved transport services to and within a local area or region.

· Educational opportunities: Wine tourism can provide expanded opportunities for residents through the introduction of adult education and specialised training courses.

· A broader social outlook: Wine tourism provides the opportunity for residents to interact with other people and cultures and brings new ideas into the community.

Research has shown that there are 10 major reasons which motivate people to visit wine regions: (1) to taste wine, (2) to gain wine knowledge, (3) to experience the wine setting, (e.g. meet the winemaker; tour cellars and vineyards), (4) to be in a rural setting (beauty of vineyards; learn about farming, agro-tourism), (5) to match food and wine-culinary tourism, (6) to have fun (wine festivals and events), (7) to enjoy wine culture (romance and elegance), (8) to appreciate the architecture and art, (9) to learn about the “green” aspects and eco-tourism, and (10) to enjoy the health aspects of wine.

To taste and buy wine are the most prevalent motivations for visiting a winery, with emphasis on enjoyable tasting experiences and finding interesting and special wines. Fun, knowledge and enjoyment are the primary values of a wine lover. Most visitors go to wineries to taste the wine and expand their knowledge in the field or to learn about the process of wine production, the history and heritage of local wine. They may wish to tour the vineyards and winery or meet the winemaker. In recent years, there has been further consumer growth and interest in dining and cooking, including the selection and matching of food and wine. Wine lovers everywhere are discovering that it’s more fun to drink their way through a vacation than to sit idle on, say, a beach reading the latest best-seller.

The growing phenomenon of wine, cuisine and agro-tourism experiences is a trend which has already arrived in many villages. However there are opportunities for offering potential customers a number of wine-associated experiences other than culinary-related fields. Examples include arts and crafts demonstrations at establishments, in which crafts are demonstrated alongside their sale to consumers. Many Europeans visit wine regions such as Burgundy and Tuscany to enjoy the good restaurants and appreciate the architecture of the ancient wine villages. However, there are those who claim that it is the romance and culture of wine that attracts them for an elegant get-away weekend. A smaller but growing majority provides reasons of agro- and eco-tourism to learn about grape growing, sustainable practices, and perhaps assist with the harvest as a primary motivation.

Finally, there are those who cite the healthful aspect of wine as a rationale to expand their visits to wine regions.

Recent trends show that wineries are no longer simply venues to taste and purchase wine. Many offer a complete tourism experience – services such as restaurants, accommodation, tours, picnic facilities and recreational facilities. Today’s winery is a place where consumers and visitors can interact with the product, the winemaker, and experience first hand the rich diversity that the wine region has to offer.

Research in popular wine producing areas shows that wine tourism travellers tend to be higher income earners. The majority of pleasure travellers who are motivated to travel by wine-related activities are well educated. The all important lasting positive impression of a visit to a winery is the key to a successful operation. Word of mouth customer-driven promotion based on positive experience is a powerful way to grow in this business area. There are many ways to evoke memory in visitors, from the wines themselves, the staff, the food on offer and architectural features, to the opportunity to observe a working winery. It is a combination of these and other things that create the winning impression. Different people will respond to different aspects of their visit, so it is important to focus on building a complete experience that reflects and complements the brand.

While it’s no new concept, the idea of wine tourism is starting to take root across the globe. From France to Germany and Australia to Chile , people are increasingly booking passage based less on the destination itself than on the wine produced in that destination. Wine tourism is providing a renewed sense of purpose for leisure time and it is not limited to wine aficionados. Thanks in part to concerted efforts by wine-producing regions to espouse their industry and leverage it for fun and profit, the wine tourism trend appears to be something travellers can appreciate. That is logical, since cultural tourism exists to satisfy a need for discovery – heritage, new wine regions, new old civilizations, new artefacts, new exhibitions, and new activities. Recent economic results in major wine producing regions have proven that the cultural tourism is, in fact, recession-proof. With the travel industry facing a worrying future during today’s economic turmoil, wine tourism may just be the trend that saves the day. Gone are the days of travel for travel’s sake – this is travel with a purpose. And what better purpose can there be than to drink wine?

The obvious benefit of increased wine tourism for wineries is increased sales due to more visitors. This is because 50%-90% of the time, depending on the size of the winery, a visitor will purchase at least one item, even if it is just a corkscrew. However, the actual act of allowing visitors taste the wine usually encourages them to make a wine purchase. A related benefit is higher margins, since the visitor is buying direct from the winery rather than having to go through distributors and retailers. Probably less recognized benefits include the opportunity to attract new customers and foster brand loyalty. Likewise, visitors can provide product feedback, effectively turning the tasting room into a customer research lab. Increased wine tourism can also assist in developing new links with the wine trade, because visitors may seek the wine at their local retailer when they return home. Finally, if implemented correctly, wine tourism can be positive for the whole community in increasing revenues for stores, restaurants, hotels and all of the employees who work in those establishments.

The consumers’ demand for authentic experiences and for more creative activities while at a destination will pressure change – not only the geographies of the cultural tourism, but also the relationship between the local community and visitors. These ties are expected to become closer and closer and have a positive impact on both sides of the equation.

Furthermore, it has been established that a number of businesses are directly or indirectly benefited by tourists who visit wineries, wine grape growers, and other wine related attractions. These industry clusters include governmental agencies at a variety of levels, vineyards, wineries / processing facilities, bottle and barrel traders, marketing organizations, trade and tourist publications, to name a few. Given the wide range of products and services required to support wine tourism, the cluster has both domestic and global implications for suppliers.

Wine tourism is a rapidly growing field of industry and academic interest with changes in the consumer markets in recent years, showing an enormous interest in “experiential” travel. Importantly, they note that the production of quality wine is still critical in winning over the consumer and that tourism activities will not provide a panacea for regions with unknown or poor reputations.

On the flipside, wine tourism can also be challenging to implement. It requires strong cooperation and partnership within the community. Without restaurants, hotels, police, medical agencies, local government for permits, environmental groups, employment services, and road agencies and other infrastructure support, wine tourism cannot succeed. Financial support must be obtained, and a marketing campaign designed which includes not only brochures and a website, but signage, event planning and evaluation. Most successful wine tourism efforts invest in a regional branding program and elect a board of directors to guide the process. Finally, care must be taken to protect the environment and rural beauty of the vineyards so that the region maintains its charm and reason to be a wine destination.

During the last few years, many innovations have been introduced in the wine scenery in Cyprus . A recent addition is the Wine Routes of Cyprus. Wine lovers can now taste a selection of great value quality wines on a variety of way-marked routes, whilst enjoying the breathtaking Cypriot scenery along the way. You don’t need to be a wine expert to enjoy wine-tasting or a guided tour to a winery and its vineyard.

Cyprus vine areas are mainly located in the Limassol and Paphos districts. Anyone can easily build a Cyprus wine tour. However, for your convenience the Cyprus Wine Commission in cooperation with the Cyprus Tourism Organisation has designated four wine routes traversing the vine growing villages of these two districts.

1. Akamas-Laona (Paphos District): Located along the western coast of Cyprus and at an altitude of around 600m, this area comprises the six village communities of Drousia, Inia, Kathikas, Kritou Terra, Pano Arodes and Kato Arodes.

2. Vouni Panayias–Ambelitis (Paphos District): At an altitude of over 800m, this area comprises the regions of Ambelitis, Galataria, Kilinia and Panayia in the western part of the island.

3. Pitsilia (Limassol District): This region of origin comprises of 32 villages all situated on the slopes of Madari located east and south east of Troodos. The 32 villages are: Ayia Irene , Ayios Ioannis, Ayios Theodoros, Agridia, Agros, Alithinou, Alona, Apliki, Askas, Dymes, Farmakas, Fikardou, Fterikoudi, Gouri, Handria, Kambi, Kannavia, Kato Mylos, Kourdali, Kyperounda, Lagoudera, Lazania, Livadia, Odou, Palehori, Pelendri, Platanistasa, Polystypos, Potamitissa, Saranti, Spilia and Sykopetra.

4. The wine villages (“krassochoria”) of the Limassol District: On the southern slopes of the Troodos mountains facing Limassol lies a constellation of 20 villages known as the wine villages. These constitute the fourth region of appellation of origin, as follows: Pano Kyvides, Ayios Amvrosios, Ayios Therapon, Pachna, Malia, Arsos, Vasa, Dora, Kissousa, Potamiou, Omodos, Kilani, Vouni, Kouka, Lofou, Mandria, Pera Pedi, Trimiklini, Trozena.

All these areas are renowned for their vineyards and delightful hillside villages. Here, the old forms of viticulture are still kept alive and wine production is still the main occupation for most of the inhabitants. A number of small wineries welcome visitors on wine tasting tours. You can visit the wineries in the region along the wine roads, tasting wines that have won international awards. Look for the wineries or individual residences that have signs which show they offer wine. A number of agro-tourism establishments can be found in most areas including restaurants serving authentic Cypriot cuisine.

Always have in mind that “wine is always best when it is drunk near its own soil”.

Wine News and Information

· Several studies have shown that moderate consumption of wine is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Two new studies suggest that wine does play a role and that chemicals in the grapes may help. Previous studies have postulated that the lower rate of type 2 diabetes among moderate alcohol drinkers is due to a healthier lifestyle. After analyzing 10 years worth of data, including 796 cases of type 2 diabetes, the researchers concluded that the lower rate of the disease among drinkers cannot be explained by a healthier lifestyle alone. Alcohol, in some way, contributed directly to a lower incidence of the disease — drinkers had a roughly 40% lower risk compared to abstainers. Research from the University of Michigan finds that eating grapes seems to slow development of high blood pressure and insulin resistance. Both are the leading precursors to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Together, the two create a condition known as metabolic syndrome, which affects 50 million Americans.

· Women may play a central role in the future of wine consumption in China , according to new research by Vinexpo. The study undertaken by the company surveyed the behaviour of 2,810 women in four Asian countries to compare and contrast their consumer habits, depending on whether they lived in China , Japan , Hong Kong or South Korea . The research found that: Over 40% of female consumers in Japan , the most established wine market in Asia , drink wine more than twice a week.

o About 50% of the Chinese women surveyed were solely responsible for purchasing their wine, never seeking recommendations from third parties, whereas Japanese women often allow other parties to influence them when choosing wine.

o 92% of the Japanese respondents and 74% of the Koreans interviewed selected wine for its taste.

o Health is a big concern for female consumers in China . 38% claim that they drink wine because it is good for health, while only 22% claim to drink wine for its taste. One area of consensus for Asian female wine lovers is their preference for red wine.

o More than two Asian women out of three prefer red wine in contrast to women in the UK and the US , who consume much larger quantities of white wine.

o Wine intelligence research shows that 55% of all wine purchased in the UK is bought by women, and that western women buy wine primarily for enjoyment and social reasons, rather than perceived health benefits.

Monolithos Monthly News

The never-ending job of caring for the vineyard continues. The vineyards are inspected, weeded and sprayed, as weeds constantly compete with the grapevines for nutrients. The vines are again trimmed to encourage fruit production. June is the month of caring for the new crop. As the grapes flourish, so do the weeds. It’s important to clear this competition from the producing grape vines because it will affect the quality and quantity of the harvest. Removing all excess leaves around the clusters facilitates their growth. Additionally, sulphur is widely used to control powdery mildew on grapes. Fruit and leaf “burning” may occur if sulphur is applied during slow drying conditions or when temperatures are above 27°C.

At the winery, the 2009 vintage wines are going through bottle ageing. All 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 call him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support, and would remind you of the words of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Othello, II. iii. (315)

“Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used”.