U.K friends, and they are not all Irish; tend to eye you suspiciously at the mention of Kilani Wine. Give them the wine buff spiel and they will just KNOW it’s a leg-pull. Yet its robe IS fine burgundy. O.K., perhaps not turning mahogany at the edges I grant you. As for the bouquet, who is to say that there is not the flavor of wild berries? … a hint of what? … the orchards of Perapedhi? The pinewoods of Troodos, and its legs ….

But forget the excesses of the connoisseur. The 13.9% printed boldly on the label tells me I’m going to feel good after a few glasses, and at £1.35 a bottle it must be one of the best buys on the island. Today’s walk takes you through the chalky vineyards where this fine wine is nurtured.

Drive out of Limassol on the main Troodos road, turning left soon after Trimiklini to Perapedhi. Park alongside the Green Park Restaurant. From here walk back through the upper part of the village, with the tall chimney of an old distillery on your left. After about two hundred meters go right at the signpost for Kilani and Ayia Mavri.

You descend into a valley, passing the lower part of Perapedhi, which may be visited on the alternative return route. This section of the walk is on tar sealed road, but it is not usually very busy and does have the attraction of being gently downhill alongside a wooded streambed.

The valley widens and bold chalk cliffs rear up on either side. It would be fanciful perhaps to liken them to Yosemite, but they do have a certain rounded grandeur, and the contorted rock formations, the overhangs and weathered tafoni are spectacular.

Two kilometers of easy walking brings you to the tiny Byzantine church of Ayia Mavri, its rear walls set into the cliff. A vast plane tree, gold in autumn provides shade, and nearby, water cascades down the hillside. Now the road climbs in the direction of Vouni. Take the first sealed road right at the signpost to Kilani, climbing past the winery and into the old village.

Blue washed walls and red tiled roofs give the place a very individual character. There are a few shops, a tavern, an old mosque and an impressive gabled church. Keep climbing through the village, generally choosing right forks as long as they go uphill. At the top of the village you will emerge onto an unsurfaced road beyond the basketball pitch.

The tall hill on your left is Aphami, its south facing chalk terraces planted with neat rows of vines. A pleasant climb takes you through an untidy cluster of farm buildings inhabited by relatively amicable dogs and the odd scrawny hen.

A little further along a goat pen exudes its own peculiar fragrance. To enjoy the views back to the red roofed village, climb a little further to the crest of the ridge. Beyond Kilani you will see a hill road snaking its way across the hills to the remote settlement of Lophos, while looking north you will have your first sight of the forests and snows of Troodos.

Continue left through vineyards with steep scrubby slopes beneath a radio mast to the right. Scattered bushes of meddlar and dwarf oak line the roadside. Keep left at the next main junction and soon you will start the descent of the scrubby north facing slopes of Aphami. Ahead the chalks give way to the reds and purple lavas that surround Troodos, and up the valley nestles the village of Mandria.

At the foot of the hill, just before you reach the tar sealed road, turn right onto a dirt road. Soon there is a three-way junction. The left branch gives a direct route back to your transport. The track descends through orchards and scrubland, with the white-domed church and the sinister outline of the old distillery forming the background.

Eventually the route cuts back on itself to join the sealed road along which, 400 meters of downhill will see you back at the Green Tavern. Alternatively, continue straight ahead at the three ways for a few hundred meters before following a left branch down to the lower village of Perapedhi with its jumble f buildings, its vine-shaded courtyards and its old church.

Just beyond the old church, descend to the Ayia Mavri road, retracing the first few hundred meters of your walk to regain your car.