I was born and raised in the village of Erimi, on the Island of Cyprus, which I refer to as “My Island”. I believe that a rich culture gives rise to the quest for knowledge, and my childhood in Cyprus was the beginning of my never-ending quest to discover the roots of my home.

I am a musician, a composer. I have a genuine interest in history which is portrayed through my music. Combining music with history and poetry is one thing in life that I have a true passion for.

In 1990 I inherited a building in Erimi. A large stone building, and set about my mission to decide what to do with the building. There were the recommendations of restaurants, hotels, apartments from the business people around me, but I am not a businesswoman.. I am an artist.

Deciding what to do with my inheritance was no easy task. I knew that there was something in the location but quite simply could not place my finger on what it was.

I had remembered reading of Aristotle teaching his students not to look for the stars for their dreams but to the ground. He placed stones in formation on the ground to inspire his students to appreciate achievable goals. I followed Aristotle’s teachings, and placed a map of Cyprus on the ground in front of me, I focused on my newly inherited building and it’s location. There it was right before me.

Looking at the map the location was the nucleus of the history of wine. The building itself had once been an inn where wine merchants would overnight on the way to town to sell their wine. The building is on “

Knights Road” so called because it was once the main route to Kolossi Castle. Not only that but it stands on the banks of the Kouris River right next to the Erimi Bridge, at the crossroads of the wine trails.

And so began the vision, to turn the building into a Wine Museum. The only place on the island where all under the same roof you can discover the history of wine, the science of wine making and the diversity of the Cyprus wine industry.

I took the idea to the Cyprus Tourim Organisation who accepted my proposal and I began the enormous task of financing and putting together my dream.

This was no easy task, given that I was also working as a composer at the time. Turning a vision into practice can be a frustrating journey. I had to be regimented in my work, and to keep the vision in front of me as there were times when I felt that my struggle was futile. The phenomenal amount of work that needed to be done seemed to grow the further into the project I moved.

I am a perfectionist and this meant that a lot of research had to be done, to hand pick the right people to work on my project, from the architects to the historians.

Creating the museum from scratch was the most difficult time of my life. I had nowhere to look for inspiration as this was a first on the island, everything had to be inspired from the inside.

A breath of hope came on the opening of the museum on Nov 16^th 2004, the work was done, it was time to start educating all who visited us on the gift of Cypriot wine.

A year after opening the museum I was in Greece when I received a telephone call that made all of my efforts worthwhile. It has come to light the Erimi Village the village I am from, and the home of the museum, was the site where they had discovered wine dating back to 3,500 B.C. This made Erimi village the home of the oldest wine in Europe. I had always known there was something in the location, and it had been there for five and a half thousand years..

A few months later alongside the Ministers, archeologist Maria Rosaria and a group of our supporters we officially welcomed into our display two bases of Erimi Jars.

Today the museum is a busy place. A place for education, culture, music and of course wine. From school groups during the day to themed gala dinners in the evening the museum is now well and truly alive.

Gallery

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