WINE: Cyprus winemakers at La Sélection Swiss awards

La Sélection, an independent, open wine competition for all Swiss wine merchants and producers held on August 31 and September 1 at the Congress Centre Basel chose three Cyprus wines for the Gold and Silver awards – two Commandarias from Etko Olympus and a Red Maratheftiko from Zambartas.

In all, 752 wines from the major producing regions of the world were sampled, of which two wines were awarded with the "Sélection de l'année", 57 the "Medaille d'Or" (Gold) and 183 with the "Medaille d'argent" (Silver).
“The foreign wines were particularly impressive from Spain. From 50 samples, almost half took an award, six with the Medaille d'Or and 18 with the medal d'argent,” the organisers said, adding that “this year’s award also saw excellent wines from lesser-known wine-producing countries such as Bulgaria, Lebanon, Hungary and Cyprus.”
The winning wines will be presented at the Basel Wine Fair from October 27 to November 4.
The winning Cyprus wines were:
Gold – Commandaria Centurion 2000, Etko Olympus Winery.
Silver – Commandaria St. Nicholas 2010, Etko Olympus Winery; and,
Red Maratheftiko 2013, Zambartas Winery.
The two wines that won the “Sélection de l'année” were:
Red – Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2007, Poliziano, Toscana, Italy;
White – Ambassadeur des Domaines Diego Mathier blanc 2013, Adrian & Diego Mathier, Wallis, Switzerland.