Revecca - a small producer with a big fu

Revecca

A Small Producer with a big Future

the commandaria museum at revecca

We’re continuing to tour and witness the exciting regeneration of the Cypriot wine industry, but every innovation needs a point of focus, and following a variety of visits, our minibus takes us to the area where Commandaria rules.

Commandaria, the oldest of named wines must be made in the small, but mountainous area of fourteen traditional villages that history has designated to be Commandaria country, and as we wind our way up through vines clinging to the land tighter than a tax man’s grasp on your money, we’re heading to the small family producer of Revecca in the village of Agios Mamas.

We park, get off the coach, walk up the street, walk down the street because we’ve gone the wrong way, turn down a smaller street, past a couple of benevolent donkeys who stare pitifully at us, before meeting our guide for the tasting.

He’s a man called Nicholas who is not only a talented winemaker, he’s also more youthful than some of the suits I own. He leads us round a corner, and we ready ourselves for the wonderful site of vineyards rising up and coating a mountain. What we actually see is a small neon sign, and below it an antiquated doorway through which one gingerly passes before moving along a courtyard that is so small the swinging of cats cannot take place, should you wish to indulge in such a thing.

In moments we’re inside and sitting in a taverna that is doing its best impression of an old Cypriot woman’s house. We later learn that it did actually belong to an old Cypriot woman, the grandmother who gave her name to the winery.

The building we’re expectantly sat in is rented by the current owner who uses it as part tasting room, part museum and part cellar. They’re quietly determined these Cypriot folk when it comes to using space. It’s here that we learn what Revecca are bringing to the Commandaria party,

The grapes they produce come from the ten hectares of vineyards that are spread across the villages of Agios Mamas, Lanela and Doros, and Nicholas tells us that Revecca don’t believe in messing with a successful formula, so, it’s no irrigation, grapes are sun-dried in the open (sometimes football pitches have been used for a large harvest) and the use of the Pithari, or clay pot.

After the sun-drying, there’s basket pressing, and no additions other than sulphates. This allows the four to eighty-year-old Xynisteri and Marvo vines to produce a wine that focuses on the taste profile without allowing the alcohol content to swamp the wine, as can happen when it is fortified.

Revecca sell the majority of the ten thousand bottles they produce to other wineries but keep hold of three to four thousand bottles. The popularity of their wine means that every year they sell out and can be a little choosy about which outlets they want to use to market their wine. Lifting a glass and tasting this evocative Commandaria you understand their marketing strategy completely.

I love this tranquil place, well as tranquil as a place can be with fourteen members of the Circle of Wine Writers tucked snugly inside. The wine more than lives up to its billing. I had a notion that I might enjoy a glass. I’ll just tell you that Commandaria of Revecca has more nuance and elegance than you’d get from a Savile Row tailor.

This could really be the point of difference for Cypriot winemaking, the lifestyle sip, the gateway drink that draws you towards their other indigenous varieties, but I’ll leave that for another time as I savour rich, nutty flavours and tastes of dried and candied fruit that bring reminders of Christmas.

Now if you bookend this enlightening visit with the first night when Sue Eames and I nearly ended up in a dubious place called, ‘The City of Dreams’ and Michele Shah asking me to pass her the pot I must say that the reputation of Cypriot wines can only grow and grow, and the Commandaria of Revecca will enjoy the recognition it deserves.

is it a tasting room or a home?

And for all the Facts and Figures Folks