Commandaria · Cyprus
The wine with a thousand years behind its name.
Commandaria is Cyprus’s historic sweet wine: sun-dried native grapes, patient fermentation and time in oak. At LionSpirit it is also the thread that runs through our cellar, our tastings and our spirits.
What is Commandaria?
Cyprus in its most concentrated form.
Commandaria is a protected Cypriot dessert wine made from the indigenous Mavro and Xynisteri grapes. The ripe grapes are dried in the sun before pressing, concentrating their sugars and flavours. The wine is then matured in oak under the rules of the Commandaria PDO.
The result is naturally rich rather than simply sweet: dried fruit, fig, raisin, walnut, caramel and spice can all emerge with age. It is traditionally served after a meal, with cheese or dessert, but older examples reward slow tasting on their own.
LionSpirit’s family wine heritage in Kato Platres reaches back more than 350 years. Commandaria is the final wine in every hosted tasting and former Commandaria casks are used to shape selected LionSpirit whisky and brandy.
From the LionSpirit cellar
Commandaria Legacy Amber and Apollonia 1998.
Legacy Amber is the estate’s classic expression: sweet, amber-toned and made for the last pour of a tasting. Apollonia 1998 is a rare historic release, deeply matured in oak.
In September 2019, Markus Del Monego MW selected Commandaria Apollonia 1998 for Lufthansa’s First Class Vinothek. The selection placed a wine from a small Cyprus mountain winery at the front of the aircraft.
Visit LionSpirit
A Commandaria tasting in the Troodos mountains.
Find us in Kato Platres, around 45 minutes from Limassol. Choose a wine tasting, a full winery and distillery tour, or the complete LionSpirit experience.