The sun in a glass: how I cook real Commandaria from homemade grapes

I have been involved in wine since I planted a vineyard five years ago. I planted 40 bushes at once after the builders removed the garbage from the area around the built box of the house.

I planned to do this business for a long time, as soon as I decided to build a house in a village located in the legendary region of Commandaria. It is 500 meters above sea level in the foothills of the Troodos massif, Limassol district, in Cyprus.

The construction was delayed, and the grapes grew and became prettier. The first crop was harvested already in the second year after planting. Two-year-old seedlings of the Mavro, Mavro Emerald varieties were planted. The vineyard is divided between five pines and a dozen gigantic trees stand around the house.

The complex soil of the region – clay, red soil, chalk and carbonate deposits, combined with the Italian pine growing in my area, which, along with olive trees and palm trees, is forbidden to be cut down, give a special taste to the berries and an elusive coniferous aroma of wine from these berries.

The locals pointed their fingers at me and shook their heads at my grapes among the pines, but they stopped after the first taste of the finished wine.

I’ll make a reservation right away, Commander is loudly said. The real Commandaria must first be aged in oak barrels in a dark cellar for three years, and then bottled for another 2-3 years. But how can you endure it, if either neighbors or friends come regularly and ask you to “try with yourself”?

This story was shared by my reader Nikolay I.

Know how

Commandaria is a sweet dessert wine with a strength of 16-18 degrees, the progenitor of Port and Madeira. I harvest in August, when most of the bunches ripen and become cloyingly sweet.

I stop watering the grapes. I let the bunches hang and wilt a little. Excess moisture leaves, and the juice in the berries becomes viscous, thick, with a stunning grape aroma. Flies and wasps from all over the village happily flock to sample the first spin.

An oak barrel of 50 liters costs 500 euros. I have not yet matured for such purchases, so I drain the squeezed pulp with grape skins and seeds, without filtering, into 20-liter glass bottles for fermentation.

I definitely separate the combs – what the berries hang on – otherwise a tannic aftertaste will appear and the color will not be dark amber, but dark ruby. I put a water lock on the bottle through one and a half liter glass bottles. The main thing is that everything is done with the soul. The process has started!

“The sun in a glass” – a hackneyed stamp, but very true

Fermentation itself to full development takes about 2,5-3 months. It’s easy to track down.

I wait for the end of the appearance of bubbles from the gas outlet pipe and the visible bubbling of the pulp, I wait, for control, another week and carefully drain the upper part of the young wine, trying not to stir up the bottom sediments.

Usually it is possible to drain 3/4 of the volume without turbidity. The rest is carefully filtered through paper coffee filters and allowed to stand for another 2-3 days.

That’s it – I’m with wine!

Actually, if there is real homemade wine left in the village, it is only with me. Homemade – cooked at home, handicraft. Yes, the villagers do

Commander, but having gathered in an artel, opening a modern industrial production, albeit in small volumes. Bottles and labels are given to them by the local alcohol monopolist, who also takes the finished product and sells it under his own brand.

How to save homemade wine

Now the equally important part is how to preserve this wealth. I pour the wine into one and a half liter bottles with a screw cap, which are given to me for free by a neighbor who runs a tavern at the entrance to the village.

He treats visitors to store-bought Greek wine, pouring it into decanters and passing it off as homemade. Many believe. Young people can no longer distinguish truly home-made wine without preservatives from quite a decent, cheap, but factory-made one.

Well, yes, these are his problems, and mine are to wash and sterilize bottles and corks.

I sterilize the bottles at 200 degrees in a gas grill with a lid. Some of them crack, but the rest certainly will not let you down.

I have an apple cider that has been aged for seven years in bottles sterilized in this way. I boil screw caps and funnels for bottling for 20 minutes.

We let the bottles cool down, so that the hand holds, pour, close and take it to the cellar. And the next day we rearrange a few bottles in the refrigerator and you can call friends!

With the result that

Poured into glasses, nectar, the color of dark amber, with a unique aroma – this is the drink of the holiday! Put a gourmet dessert next to the table and enjoy life. Just make sure that the dessert is not sweeter than wine – spoil the whole impression.

My recipe is suitable for someone who lives in the south, has a lot of sun and grows Muscat grapes.

Wait for the full ripening of the berries, prevent the onset of bunch disease, process the harvested grapes on the same day and in three months enjoy your own fine dessert wine, consonant with Commandaria.

Did you like my way of making quality dessert wine? Do you make wine at home? If you do, please share your recipe!