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The Wine Routes of Troodos

23 Jan 2020

Are you in Cyprus to explore the beautiful mountain of Troodos and to taste one of the world’s best wine? If yes, then surely you would want to know the best resort with excellent services so you can enjoy your trip to the fullest. Let us help you find one of the best five star resort that will make your stay comfortable and make you feel at home.

St Raphael Resort is an ideal place to be with exceptional hospitality and great location. With its breathtaking views, luxurious interior, beautifully designed pools, and helping staff, it is definitely a place to choose when you decide your trip to Cyprus.

This resort has all to offer ranging from inland and sea view rooms, suites, and marinas; great dinning, entertainment activities for children and families and much more. To explore more, just book your stay here and build beautiful memories of your life.

Being at St Raphael Resort, you can tour different wine routes - let us take you to three of the most well-known ones.

Commandaria Route 

Want to taste the famous sweet wine? Then take a trip to Commandaria wine route. Fourteen villages at Commandaria route together produce this world famous wine called as Commandaria named after the place of its production. The villages are located at a height of 500 to 900m with rich flora and fauna. These are surrounded by red (grape type: Mavro) and white grape (grape type: Xynisteri) vineyards that are a source of production of this great taste wine. These grapes are dried, pressed and fermented to convert them to incredibly yummy wine. Along the route, there are four wineries and these are a must go to places. You should definitely stop at these wineries to see how grapes are transformed to the magical wine. Do buy a bottle of wine to take with you, enjoy the wine and keep the bottle as a memory.

The fourteen villages are rich with grape yards, beautiful landscapes surrounded by dense forests and beautiful rivers. Do explore each village, meet people and listen to their interesting stories and facts about the place they live in. 

Along the Commandaria route, another famous site is Medieval Castle of Kolossi which is also known by its old name ‘‘La Grande Commanderie’’. With its beautiful views and structure, it is worth seeing. As you leave Kolossi and take a short drive you will find the “Cyprus Wine Museum”, which was opened in 2004. Located by the side of the Kouris river is a stone-built two-storey building with a rich collection of exhibits from different periods, artistic reconstructions with a vinous theme and much more. 
Another famous thing along this route is the Kouris dam which is the biggest in Cyprus. The land near to this dam is now an important wetland with rich ecological value.

After exploring Commandaria wine route, let us visit another wine route which is Krasochoria of Lemesos (Limassol) wine route.

Krasochoria Lemesos (Limassol) Wine Route

With its rich wine making history, this route has a lot to offer to its visitors. This route comprises of twenty villages with sixteen wineries along the way. Krasochoria is a Greek word combining two words that are “wine” and “villages” and hence the name represents the glorious past of this route.
The twenty beautiful villages are located on the southern slope of Troodos Mountains. With rich flora and fauna, and Mavro and Xynisteri vineyards along with other types of grapes that include Carignan, Mattaro, Oellade, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Semillion etc.; this route provides you with the most flavored wine that you will ever taste in Cyprus.

The route starts from Limassol and on the way you cross the Castle of Kolossi and Cyprus Wine Museum which as mentioned earlier are worth seeing. Crossing a beautiful village and a dense pine forest, you will reach a winery known as “Gaia Oinotechniki”. If you want to taste aromatic yellowish white wine, then have one from the winery. Along this route lies a beautiful temple of Saint Elizabeth. Do visit this beautiful chapel and enjoy the calmness in its surroundings. Near to this place lies another winery called as Zambartas winery.

As you continue on this route and reach vouni which is one of the most beautiful villages with amazingly designed houses. The stone build red tiled houses with balconies look pretty along with the scenic view of plants and trees. Talk with the locals there and listen to the interesting history of this place.

Other well-known wineries on this route are Vlassides Winery, Agia Mavri Winery, Erimoudi Winery, Constantinou Winery, M.Antoniades Winery, Lambouris Winery, Zenon Winery, Olympus Winery, Profitis Elias Winery and a few others. Each of this winery produces unique flavorful wine to give your taste buds a refreshing taste.

Along this route there are many beautiful villages that have heavy rainfall every year. Other than vineyards, the land produces many other delicious fruits like apples, prunes, apricots, peaches and pears. Visit these scenic natural landscapes and enjoy these tasty fresh fruits. These villages have coffee shops that sell coffee to tourists and visitors.

It is also worth visiting the Folklore Museum that includes unique and traditional exhibits. On the way to the museum, you can find many handicraft shops to explore and enjoy.

Let us now explore the third wine route which is called as Pitsilia wine route.

Pitsilia Wine Route

Passing through the east area of Troodos Mountain you will reach the Pitsilia wine route. This route consist of eleven villages and two wineries. This route is a small paradise on earth as it is completely covered with vineyards, almond trees, olive groves, walnut and apple trees that adorn every street and every yard. During winter this route has a pleasant climate with snowfall at hills. During summer is enjoyable as well.

The vineyards along this route produces Mavro and Xynisteri along with other grape types that are known as Ofthalmo, Vamvakada (Maratheftiko), Cabernet Franc, Caber-net Sauvignon, Mattaro, Shiraz, Lefkada, Yiannoudi, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Malaga. These classic local grape varieties dominate the vineyards of Pitsilia, with rich juicy flavor. The grapes grown at these yards are taken to local winemakers for the production of excellent wine.

This route has a lot to offer as the villages are amazing. There are many small markets and shops from where you can buy local sweet-meats, tasty jams, honey, fresh fruit and dry nuts, and many vineyard products such as raisins, soudjouko and wine. Along the route, you pass through many forests with berry trees, golden oaks and other varieties of trees.

During this journey, you will come across the church of Holy Cross which is quite well-known and is listed among the Cultural Heritage Monuments of UNESCO. Furthermore the church of Panagia tou Araka with exquisite murals and a memorable architectural structure, is also worth seeing and is noted down in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites as well.

The well-known wineries on this route are Vasilikon Kyperounta Winery and Tsiakkas Winery. Go and visit these wineries, grab a bottle for you, sit in the scenic view of the land nearby and enjoy.

Next you pass by a place that is known as Agros. This place has small shops that are famous for sweet desserts and the rose-water. This place is a heaven for rosewater manufacturers as they can learn a lot. There is zivania distillery that manufactures rose water. You can visit this distillery and can smell the best water. On this route you will find a museum dedicated to the painter Solomos Frangoulides. If you love art, it is definitely one of the best places to be.

Along the route there are villages with beautiful stone built walls, balconies, plants and trees that give your soul a soothing experience. Breath the fresh air, eat fresh fruits, buy from small shops and experience vivid and interesting moments.

If you love drinking wine, Cyprus is the place to be. Cyprus wine routes with rich cultural heritage, rural population and grape vineyards is the best choice for spending a vacation.  The wine routes are available for tourists as this is under the Cyprus Tourism Organization with co-funding from the structural funds of the European Union. There are seven such wine routes and we have just introduced you with three.

Bottom line

Ιf you want to have an unforgettable experience then visiting Cyprus and staying at St Raphael Resort would be a great idea. You will have the best and most comfortable stay with awesome food and wonderful views around the resort. Rise early, visit the wine routes and breathe the fresh air. Let the smell of grapes mesmerize you and let the wine quench your thirst. Come back after the tiring visit and lie at our comfy and cozy rooms. See you soon at St Raphael Resort.
 

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