Commandaria, the sweet wine of the Troodos

Of all the wines of Cyprus, Commandaria carries the most history and is the one I most want to recommend. It isn’t a wine to go with dinner but one for the end of the meal, or for a celebration. Here’s what makes it special according to the UNESCO inscription, and where to taste it. The wider picture is in Cypriot wine.

What it is

UNESCO describes it as a traditional sweet red wine made in a group of villages on the southern slopes of the Troodos mountains. Its method is closely bound to the landscape. Local grape varieties are used, picked late in the season, left to dry in the sun, and the wine is aged in oak barrels. It’s made by families, cooperatives and wineries of very different sizes, and the craft is learnt mostly through farm work and family occasions. For UNESCO it’s also a mark of identity and local pride, linking people to their land and their history.

On the UNESCO list

In 2025 it joined the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The inscription stresses that it’s more than a wine. It’s served as a dessert wine at weddings, funerals and religious ceremonies, offered to guests as a gesture of hospitality, and tied to other rural crafts such as dry-stone walling, basket weaving and pottery. Communities, winemakers and the authorities work together to keep the tradition alive.

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Where to taste it

The simplest way is to drive up from Limassol to the wineries of its district. Limassol’s tourism board names Revecca Winery in Agios Mamas, a family house devoted solely to Commandaria, which runs an introduction of about an hour with a tasting of three different styles. Booking is recommended, though walk-ins are welcome. The winery occupies a restored family house and now and then hosts courtyard dinners, vineyard walks and small cultural events. In Koilani, at the heart of the wine villages, Ayia Mavri Winery opens for tastings from Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 16:00, according to the same source. Driving there, car hire in Cyprus lets you string several together, and the roads are on the left, as at home. The Commandaria villages make up one of the Cyprus wine routes, and Limassol’s board suggests it by bike too.

What I don’t give you

The official list of villages allowed to make it and the rules of its designation sit in documents I couldn’t read in a permitted source, so I leave them out. I don’t give prices either.

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Taking a bottle home

It’s my favourite souvenir from the island, and I include it among my souvenirs from Cyprus. Check your airline’s rules on liquids before you pack. For other products with an official seal, see Cypriot desserts, with Geroskipou loukoumi and Agros roses, or Cypriot food. If you go up to taste, Omodos is the best-known wine village on the slopes of the Troodos Mountains.

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Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Limassol before prices climb.