The story
Vasa Koilaniou Palouze Festival in Vasa Koilaniou
Vasa Koilaniou, a documented Commandaria wine production village known locally as the Wine Village, holds its grape harvest festival in mid-September, when the village's women hand-make palouze, a thickened grape-must dessert flavoured with rosewater, mastic or cinnamon, and offer it free to visitors. Soutzoukko and kiofterka are sold alongside wine tastings and folk music and dance.
Women of Vasa Koilaniou make palouze by hand every year on the fifteenth of the harvest month, offering the finished dessert free of charge to festival visitors, a specific, gendered domestic tradition that distinguishes this village's grape harvest celebration from festivals where production is a paid commercial demonstration rather than an offered gift.