IMAGES: ARGYRIDES WINERY; KARATELLO TAVERN
Rebecca Argyrides’ family has been making
wine for five generations. The production run at Argyrides Winery is tiny: 38,000 bottles a year. Until recently, they’d load up the donkey with wine — “in the middle of the night, to avoid bandits!” — and travel to Nicosia to sell it. Rebecca, her mother and a younger woman with a baby girl comprise the winemaking team, but they’re not the only important females here. The local red grape, Maratheſtiko, produces only female flowers. Once pollinated with another variety, it produces a lovely wine — emphatic but not heavy, full of cherries and earth and sandalwood; it’s excellent with the grilled meats the Cypriots love — but, says Rebecca, it’s hard work to make. To accompany that wine, she recommends the food at Karatello Tavern in Limassol’s old town, and a little farther out, Koursaros, which, according to Rebecca, has the best fish. But first, more wine. Rebecca and I set off
into the parched hills, their limestone soils somehow nurturing both trees and vines. This feels as far from the development-clogged city as you can get, yet this landscape is only a 40-minute drive north. Aſter stopping to view the frescoes of a tiny, ancient church dedicated to lovelorn martyrs — on the banks of a river between the villages of Pera Pedi and Koilani — we reach Sofoklis Vlassides’ winery. Architecturally speaking, Vlassides
Winery is as sleekly spectacular as Argyrides
is old-fashioned and cosy. Rebecca and Sofoklis are old friends who bicker good- naturedly about the relative merits of local and international grape varieties (Sofoklis: “Local varieties do well at all altitudes. They’re the future.” Rebecca: “Maratheſtiko is enough work for us!”). We try both: Aleatis, a plump, gorgeous white from the indigenous Xynisteri, but also Opus Artis, a blend of the more familiar Merlot, Cabernet and Shiraz grapes. Where to try them with food? Sofoklis suggests Zygi, a fishing village east of Limassol where Santa Elena Fish Tavern serves his wines. Aſter our next stop — at Marcos
Zambartas’s small winery, which makes a remarkable number of good wines, including Margelina, a blend from vines planted in 1921 — we return to Limassol, hungry, to find a different city: one much closer to the Cyprus we’d hoped to see. Walking down a side street beside the pale, medieval stone of Limassol Castle towards Karatello Tavern, we spot workmen drinking Cypriot Keo beer outside an unpretentious cafe. The proprietor, a former fisherman, uses his dockside contacts to feed his old friends a cheap, good lunch each day. We order a beer which comes with complimentary nibbles: a dish of salty snails. Bottles of wine line the double-height
walls of this airy, cheerful tavern, where salad and vegetables are marvellously fresh, and fresher-still fish is sold by the kilo.
A TASTE OF Limassol
KARATELLO TAVERN, LIMASSOL This friendly tavern has a large terrace overlooking Limassol Castle and a high-ceilinged interior stacked with wine shelves. Owned by a Limassol restaurant group, this is an unpretentious place (you tick boxes on a paper menu) with good local food: fresh fish, various roasts and meatballs and lots of grilling. Around €35 (£30) per person for fresh sea bass and local wine.
carobmill-restaurants.com
SANTA ELENA FISH TAVERN, ZYGI The interior is cool and old- fashioned, while the exterior seating, arranged on a pedestrianised throughway, allows for excellent people- watching. The fish is fresh from the sea, there are local wines to accompany, and the staff are low on English but so high on helpfulness and charm that it doesn’t matter. Around €35 (£30) per person, with local wine.
facebook.com/santaelenafishtavern
Argyrides Winery, currrently run by a fifth generation of winemakers
AGIOS EPIKTITOS TAVERNA, ARMENOCHORI Set in the hills above Limassol, the Armenian village of Armenochori is now a refuge for wealthy expats, a fact reflected in the wine list, which includes a Bordeaux Grand Cru at €150 (£124). The food is very Cypriot, though, with souvlakia, sheſtalies (meat balls), snails and halloumi all on the menu. Guitar players circulate, as do a large family of feral cats, all with their eye on your dinner. Around €25 (£20) per person, with local wine.
facebook.com/ agiosepiktitostavernalimassol
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