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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 Homer, the author of Iliad and Odyssey, and to Euripides, the 5th century BC Athenian tragedian, who called it Nama, divine inspiration; a wine chosen by the Church Fathers to represent Christ's blood, and praised by King Philip August of France as 'the pope of wines that shone like a star' during the first ever wine contest in 1223 AD.
Previously referred to as the wine of Cyprus, it became widely known during the Middle Ages as the wine of the Commandery of the Knights of St. John, famed all over Europe for its taste, full body and ability to keep 'until the barrel rots'. Tradition has it that St. Gregory believed it surpassed all the wines of this world, and that St. Thomas Aquinas identified it with the 'Botrus Cipri' mentioned in the 'Song of Songs'. During the London 'Feast of the Five Kings' in 1363 AD, Commandaria, as it came to be called, starred as the 'king of the wines and the wine of the kings'; and in 1372 AD, the Curia of Pope Gregory XI of Avignon evidently ordered this divine vinum maroali for his personal use.
Over time, foreign travellers and visitors joined in praise of the fine quality of Cypriot wines. Today, Commandaria is an EU protected designation of origin, justifiably claiming to be Europe's first wine denomination. It continues to be 'the fragrant nectar of Zeus', hailed by Constantius of Sinai in 1819, and to 'count among the best wines in the world', as the Frenchman Albert Gaudry reported in 1855.
Feeling that death is nearing, an extrovert Athenian centenarian lady decides to reveal the great secret of her life. She is the infamous Antigone, mentioned in several history texts on the Greek national resistance in WW II. She, however, has a different story to tell...
Amidst the death and destruction caused by a terrible famine and the appalling German reprisals, a spirited and daring young woman struggles to save herself and her family from death. She has lost a brother in the resistance. Can she afford to leave another one in the hands of Italian fascists?
Her affluent background pretty looks and daring actions, far ahead of her time, earn her the envy of lower-class women in her town, now turned mountain rebels. When she is asked to be their leader, conflict breaks out.
Days before a terrible holocaust turns the whole region into death and ashes, she attempts a dangerous Exodus chased through the mountains and cities by Greeks and Germans alike. Will she make it?
1930: A few kilometers from the medieval headquarters of the knights Templar in Cyprus, an enigmatic Englishman uncovers a dazzling round object from the remains of an ancient Latin church and vanishes alongside it. A quarter of a century later, a farmer excavates nearby a huge earthen jar with bizarre engravings on its surface. A scholar with local roots undertakes to dig into the matter further and naively sets off a sequence of treacherous events. When he realizes that ancient artefacts and early Christian scripture fetch millions on the black market, his life is already in grave danger. Chased through the tunnels of London's Underground, he escapes to his native Cyprus only to find himself in the wolf's den. His survival now depends on putting together the pieces of a historical puzzle stretching over one thousand years that takes him back to a time when faith, power and treasure joined with crime and intrigue to determine the destiny of the world. Will he be able to decipher history's intriguing enigmas and the secrets of the Knights Templar and Lusignan dynasty's Royal Order of the Sword, which continued for centuries to operate in the background?