New to the club

Cyprus may be joining the European Union next year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean life will get any easier for its beleagured wine industry. Pat Straker reports

IN A LAND where traditions are as deeprooted as the vines themselves, and where the gulf between the agricultural mindset and the marketing desire is growing ever wider, Cyprus is in for a sharp wake-up call.

On May 1, 2004, Cyprus joins the European Union – a massive step forward, politically, for this unhappily divided island, but a considerably more nervous adventure for a wide range of its home-grown agricultural products.

While entry into the "European Club" is putting the right sort of international pressure on politicians to solve the Cyprus problem and to re-unify this artificially partitioned country, membership is also causing a certain amount of consternation and despondency.

Local farmers are realising that their cushioned lives are soon to be a thing of the past, and that the comfort of subsidies – the traditional privileges and perks of the Cypriot agricultural community – will be gone for ever after the May 1 deadline.

Life without subsidies

Already, there have been outcries from the Cyprus potato farmers (no more subsidised seeds for planting) and now there is growing anxiety from many of the grape growers who, up to now, have received minimum prices (subsidised by the government) for grapes grown for quantity rather than for their quality.

When it is realised that in the past as much as 70% of grapes grown in Cyprus have been made into low-cost bulk wines destined for blending into glu-wein or sangria, one has an idea of the problems that will need to be faced.

However, there is nothing new about this dilemma. For a number of years there has been a steady and deliberate swing towards the production of better quality island-bottled wines, while the former trade in low cost, low quality bulk wines has been slowly dwindling.

"We have repeatedly pointed out to government authorities over the past years that there is no future for farmers growing unsuitable grapes in unsuitable vineyards, that can only be marketed through the help of subsidies.

The Cyprus vineyards have to be completely restructured, both in terms of size and in the choice of grape varieties," says Akis Zambartas, managing director of KEO.  He has already put his money where his mouth is, and in the last decade the company has established its impressive "château" winery at Mallia in the heart of the vineyards on the foothills of the Troodos Mountain.

Here the surrounding vineyards have been completely reshaped and replanted with both indigenous and international classic varieties and KEO has also encouraged forward thinking local farmers to restructure their own vineyards by paying higher prices for their grapes.

ETKO, too, under the leadership of its chairman Antony Haggipavlu, has pursued a similar path, creating the Olympus winery at the family’s traditional estate at Omodhos in the Zanadjia, south of Troodos. 

Already a substantial amount of  vines are in full production, entirely from the classic international varieties, and there are planting plans to double the vineyard area in the future.

"These vineyard changes are a must and the only way forward for the Cyprus wine industry is for the old style quantity production to be substituted by quality," states Antony Haggipavlu.

The same recognition that speciality bottled wines are the future for Cyprus wines is evident at SODAP.  In order to cope with the rising demand for its successful Island Vines and Mountain Vines varietal ranges, the company has made farreaching plans for quality production.

Finishing touches are currently being made at SODAP’s £4.5 million designer-built winery at the hilltop village of Stroumbi in the Paphos wine region (it will be ready to receive 7m kilos of grapes for the 2004 vintage) while another regional winery at Pachna near Limassol (predominantly for red wines) will be up and running the following year.

Within three years a third winery at Kathicas will be completed, only for the production of Xinisteri grapes.  LOEL too, the fourth member of the big four wine producers in Cyprus, has also been following the quality route in recent times, in view of the ending of subsidies and the changing pattern of business opportunities.

"It will be very difficult for Cyprus in the European Union.  We are like the small fish in the ocean, and we cannot fight the big sharks.  We must take advantage of our strengths and fight within the framework of the niche markets," says Stelios Petrides, general manager of LOEL.

His company’s way to the future is to concentrate on the high quality unique Cyprus products, such as Commandaria and the special grape spirit Zivania, as well as a quality range of varietal wines (Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon) which will be launched in Cyprus before the end of the year.

Proper appellation system So if producers are already gearing up to the problems of a life without subsidies, what is all the fuss about? The problem, of course, is that as  much as two thirds of the current Cyprus vineyard is in the hands of unenlightened growers who produce grapes just to get the government subsidy.

Come next harvest, their grapes will have little or no worth, as producers seek higher quality grapes from better quality vineyards.  Urgent ongoing talks between the Producers’ Association and the Cyprus Government – the Ministry of Agriculture and the Vines and Wines Commission – are centred on two vital issues.

How to fund more cost efficient and better sized vineyards, planted with the recommended varieties that will appeal to the reluctant winegrowers, and how to present proper and relevant appellation regulations that will be approved by the EU.

A properly recognised appellation system is a must for any country that is serious about its production of quality wines, and the Cyprus producers see the May 1 deadline as the moment critique to set it all in motion.

However, it is not only the big four wineries that have been showing the way forward, as far as quality wines are concerned. 

For the last 10 years or so, a new generation of small regional wineries have sprung up, starting on a tiny scale but now strongly progressing along the quality route as their wines receive acclaim and success on the home market.

Take the progress, for example, of two such pioneering wineries in the Paphos area, the Figardos Winery and the Vouni Panayia Winery.  Starting as a hobby, Theodoros Figardos bottled his first wines in 1990 from grapes grown in his wife’s small vineyard in the hills above Paphos.

He built his own bijou winery three years later at Mesogi village in the northern outskirts of Paphos town where he now produces some 300,000 bottles of handcrafted wines in the modern style.

He sells mainly to the better quality restaurants and outlets in Cyprus and concentrating more on the production of rosé and red wines (such as the 100% Mataro Achilleas and the oak-aged Cabernet Sauvignon Leonardo).

The Vouni Panayia winery, on the other hand, specialises in white wines and sits at the top of the mountain village of Panayia at more than 1,000 metres high.  Originally supplying bulk wines for the villages in the surrounding area, Andreas Kyriakides, who manages the winery with his brother and cousin, decided to bottle wines some 15 years ago.

Today, production has reached half a million bottles with Alina white, made entirely from the local Xynisteri grapes, being the most popular brand in the portfolio. While regional wineries presently account for less than 5% of the bottled wines of Cyprus, they do show that there is a bright future for interesting, well made wines of character.

Strong 2003 harvest

As luck would have it, the 2003 vintage has been ideal for quality wine production in Cyprus.  After last year’s problems with perinospera and a governmental "mess up" of pruning advice to growers resulted in a tiny crop of grapes in 2002, this year’s harvest has produced 60m kilos of healthy grapes.

This has been due to good winter rains and excellent weather during the long growing summer season.  In the best mountain-side vineyards (around 1,000 metres above sea level) quality production has been assured and should give the Cyprus wine business plenty of confidence to pursue its ideal of establishing a recognised and workable appellation of origin system before the May 1 deadline.

Twenty years ago, the industry was crushing more than 150 million kilos and turning the juice into concentrate or very cheap bulk wines for a thirsty global market. 

Today, world conditions have changed completely, and the way forward for Cyprus is through the production of selected bottled quality wines showing character and origin.