“View across Mount Zalakas — terraces and vineyards above Agios Mamas, part of the Commandaria landscape.”
The Commandaria Region
Commandaria is a region defined as much by culture as by geography.
It stretches across the southern foothills of the Troodos Mountains, some of the oldest vine-growing ground in Cyprus and the Mediterranean.
Over the centuries, Byzantines, Lusignans, Venetians, Ottomans, and the British all passed through these hills. Each left something behind — in trade, in scale, in the way vineyards were organised. What survives today is not one unbroken tradition, but a mixture of influences carried forward by the people who live here.
The region is now recognised under the Commandaria PDO, covering fourteen villages. Each has its own story, yet all share a common winemaking heritage that still shapes daily life.
Commandaria vineyards remain a source of pride passed from one generation to the next — a symbol of tradition and identity.
“Eleni among goblet-trained vines on Zalakas, looking out towards Lemesos’ coast.”
Our Commandaria Vineyards
We farm in the western part of this landscape — a compact but diverse area.
Some vineyards are on limestone, others on magmatic soils, spread across slopes between 600 and 800 metres.
Together they form a patchwork, not a single estate — a reflection of family farming as it grew naturally over generations.
Some vineyards were inherited, dating further back than we can trace. Others we planted ourselves, and a few we restored when neighbours could no longer care for them. Each carries its own story and effort.
What we do today continues a thread of stewardship, tying us to the past and carrying the vineyards forward into the future.
“Inside the Commandaria vineyards on Zalakas, with the Troodos peaks in view.”
Farming Commandaria Vineyards
Viticulture here isn’t generic Cypriot — it is Commandaria-specific.
It’s a system of inherited traditions and formal regulations that put the focus not only on the wine, but on the vineyards themselves.
Goblet-trained vines, low planting density, dry-farming, and native varieties aren’t modern choices — they’re practices shaped by centuries of work in these foothills. They’ve lasted because they fit this land and this wine.
Our family has worked Commandaria vineyards for generations. Long before we began making wine, we were growers, and the knowledge we carry comes from living among the vines. It isn’t written — it’s learned in the fields, season after season, and passed on through practice.
Commandaria has never been about chasing yield. Even today the limit is 6,000 kilos per hectare — a fraction of what’s common in most wine regions. That says something about the priorities here: farming that values health and longevity over output, with vineyards built to last for generations.
“Harvesting by hand in the Commandaria vineyards — goblet vines, rocky soil, wide spacing.”
Revecca
Winery
Commandaria Winery | Agios Mamas
Commandaria, Lemesos, Cyprus