Commandaria — The World’s Oldest Wine Is Still Being Made in Cyprus

Most people have never heard of Commandaria. And that is one of the great mysteries of the wine world — because this is not some obscure curiosity tucked away in a specialist catalogue. This is the oldest named wine in continuous production on the planet. It has been made in the same mountains in Cyprus for over five thousand years. Kings drank it. Crusaders fell in love with it. Richard the Lionheart called it the wine of kings and the king of wines. And you can taste it on the hillsides where it was born.

What Is Commandaria?

Commandaria is a rich, amber-coloured dessert wine made exclusively in a small region of the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus — fourteen villages, most of them ancient, spread across the southern slopes above Limassol. It is made from two indigenous grape varieties: Xynisteri (white) and Mavro (red), dried in the sun after harvest to concentrate their sugars, then fermented slowly and aged in oak barrels for a minimum of two years.

The result is something that tastes like liquid history — deep, sweet, complex, with notes of dried fruit, caramel, and something that is almost impossible to describe but completely impossible to forget.

Five Thousand Years in One Glass

The wine we now call Commandaria has been produced on Cyprus since at least 800 BC — the Greek poet Hesiod described a dried grape wine from Cyprus at that time, and the tradition stretches back even further. But it was the Crusaders who gave it the name we use today.

In the 12th century, the Knights Templar established their headquarters — their Grande Commanderie — on the southern slopes of the Troodos Mountains. The wine produced on their estates became known simply as the wine of the Commanderie. Commandaria. The name stuck, and has not changed since.

In 1191, Richard the Lionheart captured Cyprus on his way to the Holy Land and celebrated his wedding in Limassol with the local wine — declaring it the wine of kings and the king of wines. Whether or not he actually said those exact words, the story has been told for eight hundred years — which tells you something about the wine.

The Oldest Wine Name in the World

In 1990, Commandaria became the first wine in history to receive a protected designation of origin — a recognition not just of its quality, but of its extraordinary continuity. No other wine in the world can claim an unbroken production history as long or as well-documented as Commandaria.

The villages where it is made today are the same villages where it was made a thousand years ago. The grape varieties are the same. The sun-drying method is the same. Some producers still age their wine in the same ancient wooden barrels, adding new wine to old in a process that means the oldest Commandaria contains wine from many different harvests — decades, sometimes centuries, layered together in a single glass.

How to Taste It

Commandaria is best served slightly chilled, in a small glass, at the end of a meal — or simply on its own, with nothing to distract from it. It pairs extraordinarily well with aged cheeses, dried figs, dark chocolate, and the local carob-based sweets found in village shops across the Troodos.

You can find Commandaria in almost every supermarket and wine shop on the island, but the best way to taste it is where it comes from — in the mountains, poured by someone who has been making it their whole life, with the vineyards visible through the window.

Taste It on Our Tours from Paphos

Commandaria features on two of our tours from Paphos — poured by the people who make it, in the mountains where it has always been made.

On the Scenic Troodos Mountains Tour with Wine Tasting, you’ll wind through the Troodos villages and taste Commandaria alongside local wines in a setting that hasn’t changed much in centuries. For a longer day that combines wine with loukoumi, rose factories, and the full flavor of rural Cyprus, the Gourmet Cyprus Tour — Local Flavors & Wine ends with a winery visit and tasting that brings the whole day together perfectly.

The oldest wine in the world is still being made. And it tastes even better when you’re standing in the mountains where it was born.