A New Addiction - St. John Commandaria

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Nov 20th 2005 @ 12:03PM

st john commandaria After a Greek feast that's fit for the gods, it's natural to think of having a piece of sticky sweet flaky baklava, or maybe even some thick, creamy Greek yogurt drizzled with honey and walnuts. This was my thought recently just after dinner at Chicago's Greek Islands. When I asked our server what his favorite was, he said St. John's Commandaria. Well, then, bring me the Commandaria!

St. John's Commandaria is a fortified wine from Cyprus, and is the oldest registered brand of wine that is still in production today. It is made the same way it was in ancient times by drying red Mavron grapes under the sun first. These "raisins" are pressed for their juice, which is then fermented. The resulting wine is dark reddish brown in color, has a rich syrupy consistency, tastes sticky sweet, and smells faintly of raisins. A drink that smells like raisins certainly doesn't sound very good, but it is. O-pah!

Filed Under: Drink Recipes
Tags: dessert, mediterranean, midwest cities, wine