Grapes have been grown for winemaking on Cyprus as far back as 4000 B.C., and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds specifically mention "Ya'in Kafrisin"--Hebrew for "Cypriot wine"--as a sacrament in religious rituals during the time of the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem .
In fact, Orthodox Jews around the world have no choice but to remember Cypriot wine, since they must recite the words "Ya'in Kafrisin" twice a day in their prayers.
That's the kind of name recognition Cypriot officials would die for among the all-important Western European market, which in modern times has been the leading consumer of wines from Cyprus.
With an area of 9,250 square kilometers and a population of around 740,000 inhabitants, Cyprus has under cultivation some 23,500 hectares of vines, with an annual grape production of between 120,000 and 140,000 metric tons. In a good year, this translates roughly into 90,000 to 100,000 tons of grape juice, bottled wine and bulk wine.
"Honestly, I can't say that our wines have any negative properties, except that they're not well-known, though in the ancient world Cyprus was a major wine-producing country.”
In May 2005 the Italian archeologist Maria Rosario Belljiorno announced that she found in ancient pots 3500BC in Erimi (Limassol) , spots of wine.
After that she came to the conclusion that the Cypriots were the first wine-makers in Mediterranean 5500 years ago.
www.antoniadeswinery.com/winehistory.php
The first and one of the best?
Thanks for sharing Niki. First huh? 
