The Oldest Wine has a Name

The Oldest Wine

There are a lot of great wines in the world, but not all of them have a history as deep and rich as Commandaria – and even fewer of them have had a distinct name for centuries. Commandaria is the oldest named wine in the world that is still in production today, and has been around since at least 800 B.C.

The earliest mention of this wine was in an ancient Greek poem written by Hesiod, who referred to it as the “Cypriot Manna.” It was once a popular beverage to drink at festivals, particularly those that honored Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Fast-forwarding to the 1100s, during the time of the Crusades, it was also enjoyed at King Richard the Lionheart’s wedding. He loved it so much that he called it “the wine of kings and the king of wines.”

After King Richard sold the island of Cyprus to the Knights Templar, the Knights then sold off the land again, but kept an estate there called “La Grande Commanderie.” “Commanderie” described the military headquarters, and eventually it became known by the locals as the “Commanderia.” This is how the wine got a name that eventually stuck with it through the centuries to come.

Why Kings to your average, modern-day person fall in love with it ?

Commandaria is a very sweet dessert wine, meant to be imbibed after dinner as a digestif. It is made from grapes that are dried on the vine, and are then pressed and fermented, giving the wine a unique flavor of raisins mixed with hints of other dried fruits and caramel. The amber-colored wine has been produced in this way since its origins in 800 B.C. (or earlier), because it is a process that yields such great results.

After the fermentation and aging stages, Commandaria usually has an alcohol content of around 15 percent, but it can reach 20 percent if it is fortified with a distilled spirit. Because of its sweetness and the percentage of alcohol it contains, many people mistakenly believe this wine to be a liqueur.