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UNESCO listing leaves sweet taste for Commandaria producers

Commandaria now joins a small group of wine-related living traditions recognised on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which includes Georgia’s Qvevri winemaking, bush-vine training in Pantelleria, and the Winegrowers’ Festival of Vevey in Switzerland. UNESCO’s separate World Heritage list – which focuses on sites and landscapes – features a far broader representation of the wine world, encompassing renowned regions such as Tokaj, Conegliano Valdobbiadene, and Champagne.

Commandaria is an amber-coloured sweet wine made from Xynisteri and Mavro grapes grown in 14 designated villages in the foothills of the Troodos mountains. The grapes are dried in the sun for up to 10 days to concentrate their sugars before fermentation, and the wine must then be aged for at least two years in oak barrels.

• Read more: Italy’s entire food culture gains UNESCO listing

Families, cooperatives, and wineries of all sizes take part in producing Commandaria, with the associated knowledge and skills passed on informally through farm work, family gatherings, festivals, and community celebrations. This wine is central to social customs, religious rituals, and culinary traditions, and closely connected to other traditional Cypriot crafts such as drystone walling, basket weaving and pottery. Commandaria is chiefly enjoyed as a dessert wine at milestone occasions like weddings, funerals, and religious ceremonies, but is often offered to guests as a gesture of generosity and hospitality, too.

The Guinness World Records recognises Commandaria as the oldest wine still in production, with origins traceable to around 2000 BCE. It has been known by its current name since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old French Commanderie, referring to the headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers at Kolossi Castle and their estate in the Limassol region (from 1203 onwards). The earliest written references to the name appear in mid-18th-century Venetian documents and in Giovanni Mariti’s Viaggi per l’Isola di Cipro (1769).

The UNESCO candidacy file was prepared by Dr Angel Nicolaou Konnari of Cyprus’ Ministry of Culture and Dr Antigone Polyniki of Cyprus’ National Commission for UNESCO, in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and representatives from the 14 Commandaria villages, including vinegrowers, winemakers and other stakeholders.

Konnari, who represented Cyprus and the candidacy at the UNESCO session in New Delhi, said that “the inscription will undoubtedly strengthen the existing promotion of [Commandaria wine] and motivate younger generations to follow in the footsteps of the older generation of vine-growers, winemakers and wine lovers. It will encourage communities to unite their forces for the further safeguarding and promotion of living cultural traditions in Cyprus more broadly.”

Indeed, while inscription on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list does not in itself guarantee the future of a tradition or the economic success of a region, it is generally seen as a crucial step to achieve these goals. The recognition brings added credibility, renown and prestige, and it serves as a powerful incentive to invest in the sector and create jobs around it.

The inscription of Qvevri winemaking in 2013, for example, has been widely credited as a key driver of the recent international success of Georgian wine. Just last summer, the category recorded strong sales growth in leading UK retailers such as M&S and Waitrose, while the National Wine Agency of Georgia recently reported that Georgian wine exports to the U.S. grew at a 15.5% compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2024.

• UNESCO
• Cyprus
• sweet wine
• commandaria
• Representative List
• Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity