<p><span>Wine tasters typically describe a wine in terms of its bouquet of aromas, mouth characteristics and aftertaste. None of these, however, can catch the sensation felt by a wine lover mindful that the wine in his glass was praised by poets and celebrities through the ages; a wine known to </span><em>Homer,</em><span> the author of </span><em>Iliad </em><span>and </span><em>Odyssey</em><span>, and to </span><em>Euripides</em><span>, the 5th century BC Athenian tragedian, who called it </span><em>Nama</em><span>, divine inspiration; a wine chosen by the Church Fathers to represent Christ's blood, and praised by King Philip August of France as '</span><em>the pope of wines that shone like a star</em><span>' during the first ever wine contest in 1223 AD.</span></p><p><span>Previously referred to as </span><em>the wine of Cyprus</em><span>, it became widely known during the Middle Ages as </span><em>the wine of the Commandery of the Knights of St. John</em><span>, famed all over Europe for its taste, full body and ability to keep '</span><em>until the barrel rots</em><span>'. Tradition has it that </span><em>St. Gregory</em><span> believed it surpassed all the wines of this world, and that </span><em>St. Thomas Aquinas</em><span> identified it with the </span><em>'Botrus Cipri</em><span>' mentioned in the '</span><em>Song of Songs</em><span>'. During the London '</span><em>Feast of the Five Kings</em><span>' in 1363 AD, Commandaria, as it came to be called, starred as the '</span><em>king of the wines and the wine of the kings'</em><span>; and in 1372 AD, the Curia of Pope Gregory XI of Avignon evidently ordered this divine </span><em>vinum maroali</em><span> for his personal use. </span></p><p><span>Over time, foreign travellers and visitors joined in praise of the fine quality of Cypriot wines. Today, Commandaria is an EU </span><em>protected designation of origin</em><span>, justifiably claiming to be Europe's first wine denomination. It continues to be 't</span><em>he fragrant nectar of Zeus</em><span>', hailed by Constantius of Sinai in 1819, and to '</span><em>count among the best wines in the world</em><span>', as the Frenchman Albert Gaudry reported in 1855.</span></p>