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, Maratheftiko, 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. After 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 Argyridesis 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: “Maratheftiko
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.
After 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.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.comSANTA 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/santaelenafishtavernAGIOS 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, sheftalies (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/
agiosepiktitostavernalimassolA TASTE OF
LimassolArgyrides Winery, currrently
run by a fifth generation
of winemakersJul/Aug 2020 47