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ETKO – Olympus Wineries, more commonly known as Olympus Winery, is the modern face of one of Cyprus’ oldest wine families. The Haggipavlu family have been involved in wine since 1844, when ETKO was founded, making it the oldest winemaking business on the island and one of the oldest in the wider region. After decades focused on bulk wine, ETKO took a decisive turn toward quality, building the regional Olympus Winery in the early 1990s in the traditional wine village of Omodos in the Limassol wine region, right in the heart of the grape‑growing zone. The winery is surrounded by about 70 hectares of privately owned vineyards on the foothills of Mount Olympus, where altitude and cooler nights help preserve freshness and aroma in the grapes. Today Olympus produces a broad range of wines from both indigenous and international varieties, including Maratheftiko, Xynisteri, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, alongside its famous St. Nicholas and Centurion Commandaria dessert wines that showcase Cyprus’ historic fortified style. Visitors to Olympus Winery can book guided tours and tastings that walk you through the vineyards and modern production facilities, from the barrel cellar to the bottling line. It is an impressive, large‑scale operation that still keeps […]

Zambartas Wineries is a family winery in Agios Amvrosios in the Limassol wine villages, built on the vision of the late Akis Zambartas. In the 1970s Akis studied Chemistry in Lyon and Enology in Montpellier, then returned to Cyprus as the island’s first university‑educated enologist and spent many years at one of the major wineries. In the 1980s he carried out a four‑year research project that identified and recorded 13 previously lost Cypriot indigenous grape varieties, work that helped change the course of Cypriot wine later on. In 2006 he finally realised his dream of founding his own boutique winery focused on quality wines from these native grapes. A turning point came when his son, Marcos, left a corporate career, trained in winemaking in Provence, New Zealand and at the University of Adelaide, and came back to join Akis in the cellar. Father and son spent the early years side by side, shaping a style that stays true to Cypriot identity while using modern know‑how. Today the winery produces around 120,000 bottles per year and manages more than 13 hectares of vineyards, farmed organically and planted with both young and old vines in the Krasochoria wine region. Marcos now runs […]

Vlassides Winery sits among the vineyards of Koloni, just outside the wine village of Koilani in the Limassol region. It is the personal project of third‑generation winemaker Sophocles Vlassides, whose path into wine was shaped by his grandfather Sofoklis Metaxas, a respected village grower, and his father Theofanis Vlassides, a pioneering winemaker who replanted family vineyards with international varieties back in the late 1960s. After postgraduate studies in enology at UC Davis in California, Sophocles returned to Cyprus in 1998 determined to craft expressive, modern Cypriot wines. In 2003 he found his ideal site in the Koloni area and, together with architect Heraclis Papachristou, created a strikingly contemporary winery building that was later selected to represent Cyprus for the EU Mies van der Rohe contemporary architecture prize in 2015. The estate today manages about 21 hectares of vineyards around Koilani, planted between 700 and 1100 meters altitude, where plenty of sunshine, mild winters and sandy‑clay soils over calcareous bedrock provide a strong base for quality fruit. Sophocles works with both indigenous and international varieties, including Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Yiannoudi, Agiorgitiko and Maratheftiko for reds, and Xynisteri, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Assyrtiko and Promara for whites. His philosophy, shaped at Davis, […]