ETKO Olympus Winery - Oldest Producer

Cyprus's oldest winemaker (since 1844), now in its sixth generation. The modern Olympus facility in Omodos village features an underground isothermic cellar and offers tours showing wines at different production stages - unique among Cyprus wineries.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Find the Rope That Bound Christ — Only One Remains History · Free

   Before you taste a drop of wine, walk to the heart of Omodos. The Timios Stavros Monastery holds something no other place on earth can claim.

   In 327–328 AD, Saint Helena — mother of Emperor Constantine — stopped here on her way back from Jerusalem and left two relics. One was a fragment of the True Cross. The other was the red rope the Romans used to bind Christ to the Cross, stained with His blood. Every other piece was lost to history. This is the only one, sitting behind a golden wicket at the center of the altar screen at Timios Stavros Monastery (Plateia Timiou Stavrou 26, Omodos — the white-domed church at the very center of the village square). The monks here ran the island's first school from 1796 — the same building where you enter now. Enter from the main village square, dress modestly (cover-ups available if needed), no admission fee. Walk straight to the iconostasis and look for the golden enclosure at center. You're standing where Helena stood 1,700 years ago.

   Backup: Even if the inner sanctuary is closed for prayer, the monastery courtyard is always accessible.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Work the Press That Made the Wine a Sultan Invaded For History · Free

   Down the alley from the monastery is a stone room containing the oldest surviving wine press in Cyprus — and the machine behind the wine an Ottoman Sultan supposedly started a war to possess.

   This is the 'Linos' — a medieval grape press documented in 1469 records, in a building pressing wine a century before that. An enormous double wooden beam spans the room at Linos tou Charilaou Museum (stone building on the alley running south from the monastery square, open daily 9:30am–5pm, free entry). One end fixed to the wall. The other end: a giant wooden screw lowered by a stone counterweight, crushing grapes on a tray below. Workers here made the wine called Afames — named after the mountain east of the village. An Italian abbot wrote in 1767: 'the best wine on the island is made in Omodos.' The wine was so legendary that Sultan Selim II, according to Cypriot tradition, conquered the entire island in 1571 BECAUSE he wanted it for himself. A war over wine. Started in this room. Touch the wooden beam — it's original, 14th century. Ask the attendant to demonstrate the screw mechanism.

   Backup: If the museum is closed, the carved arch entrance is always visible. Ktima Gerolemo winery 2km north of Omodos is the same family and tells the same story.

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3. 3 Descend Into Cyprus's Oldest Cellar — 180 Years, One Family Wine · Price: moderate

   ETKO was founded in 1844 — the same year Cyprus was still under Ottoman rule. Six generations of the Hadjipavlou family later, the wine is still made here. The underground cellar holds 2 million bottles.

   In 1844, Christodoulos Haggipavlu built Cyprus's first commercial winery next to the Limassol port. His family owned two sailing ships — the 'Alexander' (1825) and the 'Saint Peter' — exporting wine in barrels across the eastern Mediterranean at ETKO Olympus Winery (Tsiflikoudia 31, Omodos 3045, surrounded by 70 hectares of their own vines). In 1834 they were already the first people in Cyprus to make brandy and ouzo. In 1893 they built the first modern winery with stone presses. In 1992 they built this facility and moved everything from Limassol — back to the mountains where Cyprus's wine tradition started 6,500 years ago. The underground isothermic cellar maintains constant temperature. You see the same Xynisteri grape grown here in the Bronze Age being made into the same Commandaria style that won the world's first recorded wine competition. Hours: Mon–Thu 8:00–14:45, Fri 8:00–12:00. CALL AHEAD (+357 25 57 33 91) — tours are by appointment. Ask to taste the Maratheftiko red — only 3% of Cyprus vineyards grow this grape that cannot self-pollinate.

   Backup: If the winery is closed, their wines are sold in village shops on the main square.

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4. 4 Taste the King of Wines — 20 Years Aged, 3,000 Years Old Wine · Price: moderate

   Before you leave, ask for the one wine that made Cyprus famous across three millennia. ETKO's Centurion Commandaria is aged a minimum of 20 years. It tastes like everything this island has survived.

   Commandaria is the world's oldest continuously-named wine — production documented back to 800 BC, with excavations proving sweet wine was made in Cyprus 6,500 years ago. In 1191, Richard the Lionheart drank this wine at his Cyprus wedding and declared it 'the wine of kings and the king of wines' in the ETKO Olympus tasting room at the end of your cellar tour. Shortly after, a sweet Cypriot wine won the 'Battle of the Wines' — the first wine competition ever recorded in history, held by the King of France. ETKO's Centurion is made from sun-dried Xynisteri and Mavro grapes — the same two indigenous varieties used for 3,000 years — then aged a minimum of 20 years before release. Say 'Centurion Commandaria, please.' Pour small. Smell first — figs and honey, sometimes dried apricot. Then taste: warm, syrupy, finishing with crème brûlée and figs on a long, slow exhale. Hold it to the light — amber to dark mahogany. You are tasting something people have made within 5km of this spot for longer than Rome existed.

   Backup: If ETKO's Commandaria is unavailable, any village wine shop carries Commandaria from local producers.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Contact in advance as bus service to Omodos is infrequent

• The village of Omodos itself is worth exploring - cobblestone streets and traditional architecture

• Ask to see wines at different stages of production