Commandaria (or Commanderia; Greek: Κουμανδαρία) is an amber-coloured sweet dessert wine made in the Commandaria region of Cyprus on the foothills of the Troödos mountains. Commandaria is made from sun-dried grapes of the varieties Xynisteri and Mavro. While often a fortified wine, through its production method it often reaches high alcohol levels, around 15%, already before fortification. It represents an ancient wine style documented in Cyprus back to 800 BC and has the distinction of being the world's oldest named wine still in production, with the name Commandaria dating back to the crusades in the 12th century.

History[link]

The wine has a rich history, said to date back to the time of the ancient Greeks, where it was a popular drink at festivals. A dried grape wine from Cyprus was first known to be described in 800 BC by the Greek poet Hesiod and was known as the Cypriot Manna.^[1][2]

During the crusades, Commandaria was served at the 12th century wedding of King Richard the Lionheart to Berengaria of Navarre, in the town of Limassol; it was during the wedding that King Richard pronounced Commandaria "the wine of kings and the king of wines"^[3]. Near the end of the century he sold the island to the Knights Templar, who then sold it to Guy de Lusignan, but kept a large feudal estate at Kolossi, close to Limassol, to themselves. This estate was referred to as "La Grande Commanderie". The word Commanderie referred to the military headquarters whilst Grande helped distinguish it from two smaller such command posts on the island, one close to Paphos (Phoenix) and another near Kyrenia (Templos). This area under the control of the Knights Templar (and subsequently the Knights Hospitaller) became known as Commandaria.^[4] When the knights began producing large quantities of the wine for export to Europe's royal courts and for supplying pilgrims en route to the holy lands, the wine assumed the name of the region. Thus it has the distinction of being the world's oldest named wine still in production.^[5][6]

Although today it is produced and marketed under the name Commandaria, it has been referred to with several similar names and spellings in the past. In 1863, Thomas George Shaw in his book Wine, the vine, and the cellar refers to this wine as Commanderi^[7] whilst in 1879, Samuel Baker refers to it as Commanderia.^[8] In 1833 Cyrus Redding in his book "A history and description of modern wines" makes reference to the wine of the "Commandery".^[9]

Legend has it that in the 13th century Philip Augustus of France held the first ever wine tasting competition. The event, branded The Battle of the Wines (fr. La Bataille des Vins), was recorded in a notable French poem written by Henry d'Andeli in 1224.^[10] The competition which included wines from all over Europe and France, was won by a sweet wine from Cyprus widely believed to be Commandaria.^[11] The Commandery region itself fell into the control of his descendant Philip IV in 1307, after the suppression of the Knights Templar.

Another legend has it that the Ottoman sultan Selim II invaded the island just to acquire Commandaria; also that the grapes used to make this wine were the same grapes exported to Portugal that eventually became famous as the source of port wine.^[12]

Production[link]

Mavro grapes used in the production of Commandaria.

Commandaria is made exclusively from two types of indigenous Cyprus grapes: Xynisteri and Mavro.^[13] The grapes are left to overripe on the vine and when sugar content reaches acceptable levels (corresponding to high must weight) they are harvested. More specifically, Xynisteri is picked when at around 12 degrees Baumé (°Bé) and Mavro at 15-16 °Bé. The grapes are then laid out in the sun to further increase the sugar density through evaporation. When the must weight reaches 19 to 23 °Bé the juice is extracted thorough crushing and pressing.^[14] Fermentation takes place in reservoirs and will arrest naturally due to the high levels of alcohol achieved at around 15%. The above process has to take place within the confines of 14 designated villages that lie in the Commandaria Region (see below). Commandaria, by law is aged for at least four years in Oak Barrels but this can take place outside the above designated area within Cyprus under strict control and under the conditions laid down in Cypriot legislation.^[15]

Once fermentation has been completed, at a minimum alcohol level of 10% (which is often exceeded), the alcoholic strength of Commandaria may be increased by the addition of pure 95% grape alcohol or a wine distillate of at least 70% alcohol. However, after this addition, the wine's actual alcohol content may not exceed 20%, while its total potential alcohol (including its sugar content) must be at least 22.5%.^[16] Thus, Commandaria may be a fortified wine, but fortification is not mandatory.

The origins of the production method are not definite. In his poem Works and Days, written in the 7th century BC, Hesiod, writes:

In his account Samuel Baker describes the production in 1879

Interestingly he claims that the evolution of this method was more out of necessity than choice..…

Commandaria is produced both by the large wine industries (KEO, ETKO, LOEL and SODAP) and by small local producers of the Commandaria appellation zone (see below).

Data recorded by Samuel Baker in his book Cyprus - How I saw it in 1879 reveal that in the late 19th century Cyprus had an annual production of about 300,000 okes, equivalent to about 385,000 litres (data reflects only duty-paid production). Of this, Cyprus exported 180,103 okes from Limassol Port, of which the vast majority went to Austria (155,000 okes valued at UK£2,075).^[8]

Official figures released by Cyprus’ Vines Products Commission show that there is a general increasing trend in the volumes produced. Much of Commandaria production is still targeted for export.^[19]

Authentication[link]

Map of SW Cyprus outlining the Commandaria region

Currently Commandaria holds a protected designation of origin (PDO) within the European Union,^[22] the United States^[23] and Canada.^[24][25] By Cypriot legislation passed on March 2, 1990, it is only produced in a collection of 14 neighbouring villages: Agios Georgios, Agios Konstantinos, Agios Mamas, Agios Pavlos, Apsiou, Gerasa, Doros, Zoopigi, Kalo Chorio, Kapilio, Laneia, Louvaras, Monagri and Silikou. The designated area has assumed the name of the Commandaria Region and is located on the south facing slopes of the Troödos Mountains at an altitude of 500-900m within the Limassol District. Only grapes from vineyards that have been planted for at least 4 years are allowed. Vine training must follow the goblet method and watering is prohibited. The grape harvest may only commence after the vine products commission of Cyprus has given the green light, based on the average sugar content of the grapes. Xinisteri grapes must demonstrate a sugar content of 212 g/L whilst Mavro can only qualify with a reading of 258 g/L and above. The sugar concentration is then raised by laying the grapes in the sun, usually for 7–10 days, to a strict window of 390 to 450g/L.^[26]

In February 2006, the Wine Products Association of Cyprus selected an official Commandaria wine glass, manufactured by Riedel, an Austrian wine glass company.^[27]

See also[link]

• Cyprus wine
• Mavro grape
• Xynisteri grape

References[link]

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης born Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλης) (November 2, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 he was bestowed with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Biography[link]

Descendant of the Alepoudelis, an old industrial family from Lesbos, Elytis was born in Heraklion on the island of Crete, on November 2, 1911. His family later moved to Athens, where the poet graduated from high school and later attended courses as an auditor at the Law School at University of Athens.

In 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. His entry with a distinctively earthy and original form assisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War.

From 1969-1972, under the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Elytis exiled himself to Paris. He was romantically linked to the lyricist and musicologist Mariannina Kriezi, who subsequently produced and hosted the legendary children's radio broadcast "Here Lilliput Land". Elytis was intensely private and vehemently solitary in pursuing his ideals of poetic truth and experience.

The war[link]

In 1937 he served his military requirements. As an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially at the 1st Army Corps Headquarters, then transferred to the 24th Regiment, on the first-line of the battlefields. Elytis was sporadically publishing poetry and essays after his initial foray into the literary world.

He was a member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.^[1]

Programme director for ERT[link]

He was twice Programme Director of the Greek National Radio Foundation (1945–46 and 1953–54), Member of the Greek National Theatre's Administrative Council, President of the Administrative Council of the Greek Radio and Television as well as Member of the Consultative Committee of the Greek National Tourist's Organisation on the Athens Festival. In 1960 he was awarded the First State Poetry Prize, in 1965 the Order of the Phoenix and in 1975 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa in the Faculty of Philosophy at Thessaloniki University and received the Honorary Citizenship of the Town of Mytilene.

Travels[link]

During the years 1948-1952 and 1969-1972 he settled in Paris. There, he audited philology and literature seminars at the Sorbonne and was well received by the pioneers of the world's avant-garde (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse, Picasso, Francoise Gilot, Chagall, Giacometti) as Tériade's most respected friend. Teriade was simultaneously in Paris publishing works with all the renowned artists and philosophers (Kostas Axelos, Jean Paul Sartre, Francoise Gilot, Rene Daumal...) of the time. Elytis and Teriade had formed a strong friendship that solidified in 1939 with the publication of Elytis first book of poetry entitled "Orientations". Both Elytis and Teriade hailed from Lesbos and had a mutual love of the Greek painter Theophilos. Starting from Paris he travelled and subsequently visited Switzerland, England, Italy and Spain. In 1948 he was the representative of Greece at the International Meetings of Geneva, in 1949 at the Founding Congress of the International Art Critics Union in Paris and in 1962 at the Incontro Romano della Cultura in Rome.

In 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U.S.A.; and —upon similar invitations— through the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria in 1965.

Death[link]

Odysseas Elytis had been completing plans to travel overseas when he died in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. He was survived by his niece Myrsene and his older brother Evangelos, who received a writ of condolence from the mayor of Athens on behalf of the nation at the funeral at the First National

The Poetry of Elytis[link]

Relief depicting Odysseas Elytis in the Venetian loggia of Heraklion, Crete.

Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. He borrowed certain elements from Ancient Greece and Byzantium but devoted himself exclusively to today's Hellenism, of which he attempted—in a certain way based on psychical and sentimental aspects—to reconstruct a modernist mythology for the institutions. His main endeavour was to rid people's conscience from unjustifiable remorses and to complement natural elements through ethical powers, to achieve the highest possible transparency in expression and finally, to succeed in approaching the mystery of light, the metaphysics of the sun of which he was a "worshiper" -idolater by his own definition. A parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the inner architecture, which is evident in a great many poems of his; mainly in the phenomenal landmark work Worthy It Is (Το Άξιον Εστί). This work due to its setting to music by Mikis Theodorakis as an oratorio, is a revered anthem whose verse is sung by all Greeks for all injustice, resistance and for its sheer beauty and musicality of form. Elytis' theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title The Open Papers (Ανοιχτά Χαρτιά). Besides creating poetry he applied himself to translating poetry and theatre as well as a series of collage pictures. Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages.

Works[link]

Poetry[link]

• Orientations (Προσανατολισμοί, 1939)
• Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (Ηλιος ο πρώτος, παραλλαγές πάνω σε μιαν αχτίδα, 1943)
• An Heroic And Funeral Chant For The Lieutenant Lost In Albania (Άσμα ηρωικό και πένθιμο για τον χαμένο ανθυπολοχαγό της Αλβανίας, 1946)
• To Axion Esti—It Is Worthy (Το Άξιον Εστί, 1959)
• Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky (Έξη και μια τύψεις για τον ουρανό, 1960)
• The Light Tree And The Fourteenth Beauty (Το φωτόδεντρο και η δέκατη τέταρτη ομορφιά, 1972)
• The Sovereign Sun (Ο ήλιος ο ηλιάτορας, 1971)
• The Trills Of Love (Τα Ρω του Έρωτα, 1973)
• The Monogram (Το Μονόγραμμα, 1972)
• Step-Poems (Τα Ετεροθαλή, 1974)
• Signalbook (Σηματολόγιον, 1977)
• Maria Nefeli (Μαρία Νεφέλη, 1978)
• Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας 1982)
• Diary of an Invisible April (Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου, 1984)* Krinagoras (Κριναγόρας, 1987)
• The Little Mariner (Ο Μικρός Ναυτίλος, 1988)
• The Elegies of Oxopetra (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας, 1991)
• West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης, 1995)
• Eros, Eros, Eros: Selected and Last Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1998) (translated by Olga Broumas)

Prose, essays[link]

• The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (Η Αληθινή φυσιογνωμία και η λυρική τόλμη του Ανδρέα Κάλβου, 1942)
• 2x7 e (collection of small essays) (2χ7 ε (συλλογή μικρών δοκιμίων))
• (Offering) My Cards To Sight (Ανοιχτά χαρτιά (συλλογή κειμένων), 1973)
• The Painter Theophilos (Ο ζωγράφος Θεόφιλος, 1973)
• The Magic Of Papadiamantis (Η μαγεία του Παπαδιαμάντη, 1975)
• Report to Andreas Empeirikos (Αναφορά στον Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκο, 1977)
• Things Public and Private (Τα Δημόσια και τα Ιδιωτικά, 1990)
• Private Way (Ιδιωτική Οδός, 1990)
• Carte Blanche («Εν λευκώ» (συλλογή κειμένων), 1992)
• The Garden with the Illusions (Ο κήπος με τις αυταπάτες, 1995)
• Open Papers: Selected Essays, (Copper Canyon Press, 1995) (translated by Olga Broumas and T. Begley)

Translations[link]

• Second Writing (Δεύτερη γραφή, 1976)
• Sappho (Σαπφώ)
• The Apocalypse (by John) (Η αποκάλυψη, 1985)

Reference works[link]

• Mario Vitti: Odysseus Elytis. Literature 1935-1971 (Icaros 1977)
• Tasos Lignadis: Elytis' Axion Esti (1972)
• Lili Zografos: Elytis - The Sun Drinker (1972); as well as the special issue of the American magazine Books Abroad dedicated to the work of Elytis (Autumn 1975. Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.)
• Odysseas Elytis: Analogies of Light. Ed. I. Ivask (1981)
• A. Decavalles: Maria Nefeli and the Changeful Sameness of Elytis' Variations on a theme (1982)
• E. Keeley: Elytis and the Greek Tradition (1983)
• Ph. Sherrard: 'Odysseus Elytis and the Discovery of Greece', in Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 1(2), 1983
• K. Malkoff: 'Eliot and Elytis: Poet of Time, Poet of Space', in Comparative Literature, 36(3), 1984
• A. Decavalles: 'Odysseus Elytis in the 1980s', in World Literature Today, 62(l), 1988

Translations of Elytis' work[link]

• Poesie. Procedute dal Canto eroico e funebre per il sottotenente caduto in Albania. Trad. Mario Vitti (Roma. Il Presente. 1952)
• 21 Poesie. Trad. Vicenzo Rotolo (Palermo. Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. 1968)
• Poèmes. Trad. Robert Levesque (1945)
• Six plus un remords pourle ciel. Trad. F. B. Mache (Fata Morgana. Montpellier 1977)
• Korper des Sommers. Übers. Barbara Schlörb (St. Gallen 1960)
• Sieben nächtliche Siebenzeiler. Übers. Günter Dietz (Darmstadt 1966)
• To Axion Esti - Gepriesen sei. Übers. Günter Dietz (Hamburg 1969)
• The Axion Esti. Tr. E. Keeley and G. Savidis (Pittsburgh 1974 - Greek & English)(repr. London: Anvil Press, 1980 - English only)
• The Sovereign Sun: selected poems. Tr. K. Friar (1974; repr. 1990)
• Selected poems. Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981; repr. 1982, 1991)
• Maria Nephele, tr. A. Anagnostopoulos (1981)
• What I love: selected poems, tr. O. Broumas (1986) [Greek & English texts]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site of Nobel Prize
• Biography in the site of Greek National Book Centre
• Recitations of poems by Elytis
• Parts of works of his
• Books in Greek about Elytis

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993