The CyWineFest at The Decorium, London N22, 6.6.26

 

 

 

The Cyprus Wine Festival has been going for over 40 years. It is the biggest Cypriot even in the world outside Cyprus. It is 'a celebration of Cypriot wine and culture.'

 

We arrived at opening time but in its charming way this was delayed for half an hour because not all exhibitors had arrived. 

 

 

Good to see the Orthodox clergy there. They seemed to know when to turn up because it wasn't long after their arrival that we were admitted.

 

 

The whole event was totally unpretentious and even homespun. We felt welcome even if we probably were the only ones with no connection to Cyprus. For sure the crowds will have grown as the day went on but being among the first to arrive allowed us to get in at whatever stand we wished without having to join a scrum.

 

 

 

 

 

 There were plenty of wines on show and for tasting.

 

 

The famous Commandaria sweet wine made from Xinisteri, a Cypriot white variety and Mavro, also an indigenous grape but black as the name suggests. The grapes are sun dried and reach high Abv levels. In December last year Commandaria was inscribed on UNESCO's list of the intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It has been produced for 800 years and there are 14 Commanderia villages where the wine is made today.

 

 

We have already paid tribute to the 'Love from Cyprus' couple who introduced us to the wonderful wine  made from Morokanella  grapes. We tasted another few and bought the following which like Morokanella are native Cyprus wines and practically unknown elsewhere;

 

Promara

Morokanella

Kotsifali

 Promara

 

Thoroughly obscure we're happy to say. Grown in small quantities on the slopes of the Troodos mountains (as is the equally obscure Yannoudi - see below). First mentioned in 1893. Resistant to drought and fungal diseases. Not mentioned in 'Wine Grapes.'

 

Morokanella

 

See our post of September: 'A great 'new' grape from a great 'new' wine country.' 

 

Morokanella also didn't make it to 'Wine Grapes.'

 

 

  

The list at the 'Try and Buy' table includes not only Promara and Morokanella but another thoroughly obscure Cypriot variety (red), Yannoudi. Thanks to Wein Plus Lexikon we can say that the name Yannoudi derives from a person called Yannis in whose vineyard it was found. The parentage is unknown. It is cultivated on the slopes of the Troodos mountains. There are only a few hectares of Yannoudi vineyards.

 

Kotsifali 

 

Actually a Cretan variety. 

 

 

Try buy guy

 

 There was no lack of drinks other than table wine. Here were liqueurs and a Commandaria of course. We must try that one day.

 

 

A great 'new' grape from a great 'new' wine country

Let's start with the great 'new' wine country. Why the inverted commas? Because this is actually a very old wine country whose wine industry almost died and is being resuscitated only now.

 

In the ancient world, Cyprus was prominent in the wine trade. As in many lands in the eastern Mediterranean and middle east, it is thought that wine production began between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago on the island. Wine flourished under the Romans and Greeks. After a 300 year Arab occupation, the British (Richard I), the Templars, Venetians and French all had a hand in running things, 

Cyprus sweet wine was the strongest and sweetest in Europe fetching the highest prices in England in the 13th and 14th centuries. A relic of that tradition of sweet (white) wine still exists in the dessert wine 'Commandaria.' The name comes from the time of the Crusades when the Knights Hospitallers moved their headquarters from Acre to Cyprus where each 'commandery' (manor) made wine.

There was a steep decline during Ottoman rule (1571-1878). The first modern winery was founded only in 1844. After the Turks, Cyprus was a British colony right up until 1960. During that time, the wine industry revived but not altogether in a good way with grape concentrate being exported to Japan, Central Europe and the UK where it became the dreaded 'British Wine.' Vermouth, Sangria, Gluehwein and Cyprus Sherry were churned out until tastes changed and in the 1980s and 90s, Cyprus lost over 70% of its vineyard land. Government subsidies were ended leading to further loss of vineyards. 

Only in 2020 did the trend begin to reverse with a new generation of winemakers buying or replanting vineyards pursuing quality over quantity. In that year the Department of Agriculture recorded 3,800 ha. of vines and 116 registered wineries, up from 52 wineries in 2014.

 

And now for the 'new' grape: Morokanella. The word "Kanella" means cinnamon and moro is "small". The variety was rediscovered by Cypriot oenologist Akis Zambartas. The parentage is unknown. There may be a genetic relationship with the Canella variety. It is a purely female grape variety. The variety was widespread under the Ottoman occupation. It is now cultivated in small quantities.  

 

Now we have waxed lyrical over various rare grape varieties in this Blog and that is our ambition - to taste as many as possible and recommend good ones in the hope that people might try them for themselves and derive pleasure from them as we did thus making the world of wine more diverse and not least saving varieties from extinction.

So when we make what might seem like an exaggerated claim please don't think it's just hyperbole. In this case we claim

Morokanella can be placed on a level with the greatest, noblest white grape varieties in the world including Chardonnay.

Marina and Thomas at the CyWineFest

There - we have stated our claim and it is up to you to get a bottle from the charming people at 'Love from Cyprus.' They are Thomas Page and Marina Nicoli, a married couple from Cyprus and Surrey selling online.

In parentheses there is a story behind our bottle of Morokanella. We were looking for something to drink with some Cacio and Pepe Tortoloni. Not something we have had before but we imagined little bombs of pepper and cheese. A red wine was called for. It is some months since we went to a wonderful event called CyWineFest at a place called The Decorium in London N22 where we recieved a tutorial in the wines of Cyprus. As well as our bottle of Morokanella, we bought Maratheftiko (red) and a Promara (white). More of this later.

Now here's the thing as they say. Reaching into the cupboard we connected with our Morokanella which comes in a bottle of impenetrable glass and near record--breaking weight (772 gm). It was only after opening the bottle that we discovered it was filled with a white wine. Has that ever happened to you? Maybe not but there we were with the Cacio e Pepe sizzling on our plate and an unchilled white wine in our hand. 

Of course we drank it and surprise, surprise not only did it stand up to the tortelloni (which admittedly weren't as peppery as we had imagined) but actually, drinking an aromatic white wine of character at room temperature was actually a revelation. It really is something we would do again. Or was it just that we were so enchanted with our new discovery?