This year our vintage team is joined by Marie Tabar, 3rd year student of Enology at SupAgro Montpellier and Natalia Kataiftsi, who just finished her masters in Viticulture & Enology in Thessaloniki. Marie will be assisting Marcos in the winery, whereas Natalia’s focus will be mostly on the vineyards, where she helps Christodoulos. So ladies, let’s introduce you to our readers! Where & how did you grow up? Marie I have grown up in a little village of
August started and it seems the whole of Europe is on holidays. I receive pictures from all my friends on the beach, sightseeing and relaxing… From the moment I met Marcos, and we decided things would get ‘serious’, I knew that I would never be going for holidays anymore in August! Instead I would be either working hard or be at home waiting for him while he is busy with the harvest. Over the years
The season of stonefruits started in Cyprus, a mark for the start of summer! I personally love all stone fruits; apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines… They are a source of antioxidants, the kids adore them and their full sweet taste and balanced acidity make them perfect for baking and cooking desserts. In Cyprus they are grown in abundance. Our local grocery store stacks full crates of them as soon as you enter the door. Even the
A modern and easily distinguishable label. Different from the Zambartas Range, and at the same time in line with our characteristic style. Something that expresses the vineyard. The soil. The vines. The beauty of its age. The typical way it is cultivated. The robust character of a vine in a hot climate. Something that touches on the essence of a Single Vineyard Range. And finally, something that makes the label ‘ours’. All of the above
The Vineyard The vineyard was planted in Spring of 1989; at a moment that I was a young boy, probably not too eager to return to primary school in Nicosia after the Easter holidays. I could have never imagined that skipping 25 years, the vineyard was purchased by our winery and the vision of a Xynisteri Single Vineyard label would start to morph. The vineyard is unique in many ways. Its south-west orientation allows for enough
If you walk into our cellar during the harvest period, you are entering a happy but noisy place. There is always some machinery working. The press might be finishing it pressing cycle. Pumps can be running. The crushing machine could be in full swing. The forklift moving around a small tank. Crates unloading. Stainless steel tools clinging and singing. Tanks providing background noise of soft fermentation bubbling. On top of that there is the team
Her eyes squeezed against the bright sunlight. Her hair was covered with a scarf, her face full of deep lines from age and years of work in the fields. Her hands dirty and rough, holding her pruning scissors. Behind her, her husband was loading their donkey with grapes. Kuria Eleftheria looked at me in a disapproving way and then said: ‘This girl is no good for picking grapes, why did you bring her to the
I have been contemplating for a long while about starting a blog, and decided that with the launch of our new website, the time has come to finally pick up my pen. My next doubt was whether to write under a pen-name or just as me, Marleen. I choose a pen-name; ‘winemaker’s wife’. Not because I just define myself as the ‘the wife of’. That is way too non-feminist for me. Besides that I
Akis Zambartas, during his career as Oenologist in KEO, re-discovered 12 native Cypriot grape varieties. During the 3 year long pioneering research, Akis discovered, recorded, planted and vinified these varieties. This impressive contribution to the Cyprus viticulture granted Akis the membership to the prestigious International Academy of Wine (AIV). Below you can read Akis’ account of the three year project, which shows his pivotal role in the rediscovery and saving of an important part of Cyprus
This year our vintage team was joined by Morphee Besseau, 2nd year student of Enology & Marketing at Bordeaux University and Jade Godmuse, student of food technology and applicant at SupAgro Montpellier. Two hard working, focussed, but also fun and social French girls. Let’s meet them! So ladies, let’s introduce you first! Where & how did you grow up? Jade I grew up in the western suburb of Paris, close to Versailles. I have one younger brother
It takes a village…. Growing up in a small village of less than 800 people, I can say that a lot of the preconceptions about village life are actually true. It is quiet, it can be boring, there is village gossip (a lot of it!), it is a closed community, there is a level of jealousy. But there is also a real sense of community, there is safety, people still greet each other on the
Climate change is here and instead of waiting for the effects to get worse, pro-active scientific research is needed. Alexander Copper, an old classmate of Marcos at the University of Adelaide back in 2008, is currently doing a PhD research at the same university into the suitability of Cypriot grape varieties for Australian viticulture & winemaking. A promising and interesting subject, which will hopefully have a commercial outcome in the future. It all started when