Limassol Wine Festival 2013

Limassol Wine Festival Video

Video Credit: Cyprus Tourist Office

This famous Wine Festival (also known as Lemesos Wine Festival) is held every year for 12 days.

It usually starts in August and goes through to September and this year is no exception, and note although the video is from 2009, your experience will be almost identical to what you see, there are very few changes each year to the main event.

2013 Festival Dates & Programme

Start date: 29 August at 7 pm
End date: 8 September at 11 pm

The festival is hugely popular and has taken place annually since 1961 with an interruption to the festivities during the years of the Cyprus conflict.

You can expect to experience

...live music, traditional dancing, theatre performances and wonderful local food.

You have to pay an entrance fee and this covers you for your bottle to put your samples in and a glass and this entitles you to wander around the municipal gardens on the seafront and drink away all evening to your hearts content.

And if you want to really get into the spirit, you can crush grapes with your feet as well, no holiday would be complete without the experience!

Top Tip

It would be the ideal time to point out if you go, don't bother taking your car with you, take a taxi or search online for a group who may be taking a bus, say from Paphos or use the wine express bus, details can be found in the

Limassol Wine Festival Programme 2013

For one thing it will be a nightmare to park, and secondly, once you start with the wine and you get carried away with the sampling and the food and entertainment.. you probably won't be able to drive anyway...

All of the major wine producers are to be found at the festival so it is an ideal time to find your favourite tipple.

Some statistics & a little folklore...

Approx 100,000 visitors consume approx 30,000 litres, that is 6600 gallons of wine each year at the Limassol wine festival.

It is said the greeks in ancient times used to pick grapes to the sound of a flute in the vineyards.

The white grapes were grown in the fields and the red on the hillsides.

The juice was pressed and then taken to market in animal skins or large jars and often additional aromatics were added such as herbs and honey.

It was also suggested Hippocrates a doctor (hence the hippocratic oath for newly qualified doctors) used to recommend wine in moderation as medicine and probably why it is said a glass of red wine a day is good for you.

What Is So Special About Limassol Wine Festival and Region?

The region has been synonomous with wine growing for a long time, because of the number of vineyards in the district.

Each family would own their own vineyard and consequently be a wine producer, even just for their own consumption and they became very good at it.

This is why the main commercial producers in Cyprus such as ETKO, Loel, Sodap and Keo have their own factories in the area, any spare grapes were sole on to the wineries and the made much larger quanties to sell around the island.

The Limassol Wine Festival is to showcase their products each year.

There are now many more smaller, more artisan wine makers in the area and around the island and they will exhibit at the festival so a great time to taste wine from all over Cyprus.

We have 2 particular favourites, The Pachna Winery from the village of the same name and Tsiakkas (prounounced chakkas, we like the rose from this winery which can be found 5 minutes of the main Limassol to Troodos road, past Trimiklini on the road to Agros. It is the Pelendria area.

Cyprus wine to our mind will probably never be as good as wine from France or the new world although it is getting better year on year... but when in Cyprus we only drink cyprus wine because it goes nicely with the food and even the 2 Euro for a litre box of sweet wine is something we really enjoy when we have it in the fridge and drink cold, it is not a wine to be really enjoyed at room temperature.

Accept the wine of the island for what it is and enjoy the experience.

An evening at the Annual Limassol Wine Festival is not to be missed and when you have been, come back to this page and leave us a Facebook comment, we would love to know how you enjoyed your evening?

Leave The Limassol Wine Festival and return home from here