The Ayia Mavri winery, formerly known as Kilani Winery, was the first to be set up in the village of Kilani which now boasts four wineries. The story of Ayia Mavri is not very different from that of other wineries, for, like the others, its foundation was due to the love and passion of its founders, Mrs Yiannoula Ioannidou and her husband Ioannis, a doctor by vocation, who runs one of the wellknown clinics in Lemesos.
It all began when the couple went on a wine trip to Austria where they had the chance to have first-hand experience of local wine-production. Going round from house to house, they were impressed by the Austrian custom of hanging a sprig of pine on the door of each house where wine was produced, along with a piece of white or/and red fabric that indicated (to, mainly, European customers who visited the country to buy quality wine) whether the wine on sale was white or red.
Two years after their return from Austria, the winery of Yiannoula and Ioannis Ioannides came into being. Today, the winery turns out 10 labels of all sorts of wine. This wide range, however, does not allow winemakers to give undivided and focused attention to their wines.
Source: Cyprus Wine Pages