Is there the notion of vintage in the island?

After we have talked about a good and bad vintage and explained that good year means good weather, it is time to examine what happens with this issue in our country.

Logically, everyone would expect the obvious, that whatever happens in most wine producing countries would also apply to our country. Unfortunately, though, this does not happen, as in Cyprus there is not yet the notion of vintage, the notion of good or bad year.

The reason is simple. You see, in order for the notion of vintage to be developed in a wine making country, all the rest must long be considered a fact, the vineyard, for example, but also its plantation, support and cultivation method. The expertise must also exist, qualified oenologists in each wine producing unit in the country, something that would ensure, if nothing else, the evasion of mistakes in vinification. Moreover, the culture is formed only through the tradition and the long vine experience in the production of quality wine.

Not all these elements constitute a fact yet for the island. On the contrary, many wineries are still looking for an oenologist. Some others have not decided yet if they need one or not. Most of them do not own but only very small vineyards. As a result, they rely almost exclusively on grapes they buy.

When no parameters that define the quality exist (vineyard, expertise, culture, etc.), how is it possible to value the quality of a certain year? How can we know whether Cabernet Sauvignon of a certain producer is from a good or bad year, when one year the aforementioned producer may manage to buy good quality grapes while the next a competitor may beat him to it? How is it possible to value the quality of a year, when the result of vinification was based more on accidental than substantial scientific factors?

Two or three out of the 50 officially recognized wine producers of the island are in position to speak about good and bad years, two or three oenologists that have their own vineyards and the required expertise. Perhaps only these, even though they lack tradition and experience, have slowly begun to talk seriously about good, average or bad vintage…

28/06/2009