Cyprus-Forum.com

[devil]

Cyprus wines are exorbitantly expensive. Even a bottle of non-vintage plonk is usually in the £1.80 to £2.50 range and their quality is mediocre.

The French have been sending their plonk ("vin du pays d'Oc") which is equally mediocre and selling it for ~£3/bottle, even though it would not fetch £1 in France. A decent or semi-decent French wine sells for typically 3-4 times its value.

Of recent date, the Italians and Spaniards have been sending us plonk, which sells for under £1. I recently bought a few bottles of a Spanish dry red one for £0.69 from our village mom and pop supermarket. It is a perfectly good table wine, without pretence, well vinified and well balanced, quite on a par with the local ones like Island Vines, Othello etc. at three times the price.

I, for one, will no longer succumb to the temptation of the exorbitantly priced local wines when I need a table wine or vin ordinaire. If the Spaniards and Italians can send us plonk for less than a quid, including the transport, why should I buy the overpriced local ones, where they have less transport costs?

Do you think that this will force Cypriot producers to reduce their prices?

[cyprusgrump]

You have a thing about wine don't you?

There is no duty to be paid on imported wine. The only costs are transport. I have seen cheap Italian "Vino di Tavolo" plonk sell at <£1.10/75 cl bottle, so this establishes a baseline of the basic cost.

Take the French "Vin du pays d'Oc". This is also plonk, grown in the Herault region and sells retail for typically €0.50-0.60/litre in France, say €0.40 or £0.25 per bottle. Price here hovers around the £2.50-3.00 mark. Who is being ripped off?

Worse: the supermarkets (except Carrefour) are offering a Beaujolais nouveau 2006 for ~£8.50. This is daylight robbery. Most Beaujolais nouveau is simply not worth drinking and the retail price in France is typically €2-2.50/bottle for the better ones. I do not know whether this wine is good or otherwise (I suspect it may not be), but anyone who pays even half that price for such a wine needs his head examining, remembering that it has not undergone a second fermentation and should be drunk within about 3 months. Who is being ripped off?

However, Carrefour have a really first-class Beaujolais nouveau for £2.90, which shows it can be done: yet Carrefour pay the transport twice, because it is shipped first to Greece, then to Cyprus. Believe me, this one is really well worth having, even though the price is slightly exaggerated.

I feel that Cypriot importers and shops need to learn that the advised consumer will not pay these exaggerated prices.

Source

[devil]

You have a thing about wine don't you?

I like wine, yes, but I don't like being ripped off.

[miltiades]

My dear devil , as a bottle a day plus , 365 days a year I can sympathise with your analysis of Cypriot wines .
Most are grossly overpriced , more so recent additions of "pretence" classy wines. In fact Cyprus produces below average wines compared to lets say French Clarets , Chilean , Spanish or Argentinian wines .I have always maintained that the Cypriot wines are " drinkable " some whites , Vardalis for instance are pleasant to the palate but no more. The wine producers have cottoned on to the idea that they can make a killing by introducing fancy labels on bottles and basicaly conning the average wine drinker. The best reds for me at least when in Cyprus are the village type , Kilani is one of them reasonably priced. Beware of Cypriot wines over £3.00 a bottle the chances are is an overpriced bottle of basic plonk. Cheers.

[beverley10]

if you like red wine we found an unbeatable one in a carton for 96 cents a litre!!Just called medium red and tastes like a merlot.Buy it in phillipos (peyia) or any papa antonios .

[Svetlana]

Hi beverley

I know it is all down to personal taste but I will never drink the carton wine, which is usually made from the third pressing of the grape. If I am offerred 'vaillage wine' in local tavernas and discover it has come from a carboard box, I go crazy.

This happened in 'Crazy Chris' taverna (opposite the Peyia Tavern ) in Peyia. I do not think the wines are great here but your palate adjusts!

Lana

[aussiedrillerman]

Love a good glass of red and we are pretty spoilt here in Australia with a lot of good wine at what I think are reasonable prices.

This is much higher then the prices you guys are talking about. A very drinkable bottle of wine here in Oz is usually over the $10AUD or about 3 pounds CYP. I think thats a pretty good price as I remember being in California and the same quality of wine there was around the $25 USD per bottle anything cheaper then that was just rubbish.

Another item of Cypriot culture I'm sure I'll enjoy finding out about

[reportfromcyprus]

Cyprus wines are exorbitantly expensive. Even a bottle of non-vintage plonk is usually in the £1.80 to £2.50 range and their quality is mediocre.

The French have been sending their plonk ("vin du pays d'Oc") which is equally mediocre and selling it for ~£3/bottle, even though it would not fetch £1 in France. A decent or semi-decent French wine sells for typically 3-4 times its value.

Of recent date, the Italians and Spaniards have been sending us plonk, which sells for under £1. I recently bought a few bottles of a Spanish dry red one for £0.69 from our village mom and pop supermarket. It is a perfectly good table wine, without pretence, well vinified and well balanced, quite on a par with the local ones like Island Vines, Othello etc. at three times the price.

I, for one, will no longer succumb to the temptation of the exorbitantly priced local wines when I need a table wine or vin ordinaire. If the Spaniards and Italians can send us plonk for less than a quid, including the transport, why should I buy the overpriced local ones, where they have less transport costs?

Do you think that this will force Cypriot producers to reduce their prices?

I'll never forget being at the new harbour traffic lights in Limassol in July 2006 and seeing a truck full of wine bottles packed in crates (local manufacturer). It was 40 degrees, the truck had no roof and the wines were being jolted around on the pot holes in the roads.

So even if the wine was ok when it left the winemaker, it would have been totally destroyed in transportation.

I also hate being ripped off; the only decent local wines are those red ones you can find in the villages just after the harvest. I find the white ones flabby with no aromas whatsoever, and 99% of the reds vinegary and short lived.

Anyone with exceptions? I'm open to suggestions!

[miltiades]

The Cyprioy wine industries are primitive . Grapes destined for wineries are of mixed varieties mostly from mixed areas without due care and attention when it comes to proper storage with controlled temperatures and proper transportation , as you observed your self.
If you like full bodied wines try the kilani village ones , also you can never go wrong with an Othello , or Olympus , old wines but reasonable.
When George Lanitis was alive I used to follow his expert advice on Cypriot wines , he was after all considered a wine connoisseur , unfortunately none of his recommendations came any where near being above average.
Some new village wines are excellent for the price and wit a fresh wine you can not expect the refinement you generaly expect of vintage wines but nevertheless very enjoyable.
Cheers !

[devil]

I don't like to say ill of the dead, but George Lanitis was a pretentious ignoramus as far as wines were concerned. It was strange that the only wines he recommended were the grossly over-priced stuff from La Maison du Vin (as if it were the only wine-seller on the island) plus the odd Keo one (is it coincidence that you find Lanitis as a name in the history of Keo?). As far as the latter is concerned, he consistently recommended Othello, which is so variable in quality, often poor, that it is incredible that a self-styled connoisseur would even think about it. It is very much a vin ordinaire, yet he used all the vocabulary of wine snobs about it. He much promoted the very expensive Ruinart champagnes, which he claimed was the oldest producer, forgetting the house wasn't founded until about 40 years after Dom Pérignon discovered the technique of champenisation, and 14 years after Abbé Pérignon's death at Epernay. He never mentioned that Ruinart wines are produced commercially by the same group as Moet & Chandon, part of the Hennessey combine. Yes, they are good champagnes, but excessively expensive.

As you say,

unfortunately none of his recommendations came any where near being above average

I agree that some of the best (and worst!) Cypriot wines are made by local vignerons, but there is no reason why Cyprus could not produce some really superb vintage wines, at least in some years. The range of climate from sea level to the highest vines is such that most of the good varieties (except Gamay, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Riesling and Chasselas) could produce well. However, I think that one of the problems may be that quantity is considered more important than quality. The best wines come from vines where the production is limited to 2 or 3 bunches per plant, producing only typically about 1 l wine/m² of ground. Here, it seems the norm is nearer 10 times this. I have a friend who is considered to be amongst the best oenologists in Switzerland and he was appalled by what he saw here in the wine-growing regions.