Turkish wine, for the happy few

You might not think so, but Turkey is one of the largest grape producers in the world. Only 5% of this is pressed into wine. Most of the grapes are eaten. Nevertheless, the quality of Turkish wine has increased rapidly in recent years. The better bottles are uncorked by a small upper class of European-oriented Turks. For example, in the beautiful restaurants on the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Fortunately, this upper class sets high standards and these wines are now exported on a small scale. So that we can enjoy them too.

Vine growing probably started around 8,000 years ago in Georgia and Armenia. Both neighbours of Turkey. It probably didn't take long before wine growing reached the East of Anatolia in present-day Turkey. There are indications that this must have been around 7,000 years ago. This makes Turkey one of the oldest wine countries in the world. Anatolia was Islamised around 1,000 AD, but wine growing has always been continued by Christian and Jewish minorities. Under the rule of Atatürk at the beginning of the twentieth century, Turkish wine growing received a new impetus. Atatürk founded the first advanced winery that produced wine according to the most modern standards of the time. In the second half of the twentieth century, the quality of Turkish wine was not exactly something to brag about. Most wine - especially white - was drunk locally, for a low price. Production was in the hands of the state monopolist Tekel. Quality was hardly an issue and exports were zero.

The rise of small Turkish top producers

The wine market was liberalized twenty-five years ago and that has made possible the rise of small, quality houses in recent years. There are currently about twenty to thirty of them. They have modern equipment in the cellars and work according to modern methods. They respond to the increasing interest in wine in Turkey and offer a quality that further stimulates that interest. Most of these top producers grow their own grapes. Turkey is a country of grape growers who have been striving for the highest possible yield per hectare for generations. If the grapes are eaten, that is a sensible choice, but for wine, yield restriction is necessary to increase the quality. Successful producers include Diren from Anatolia, Urla Wines near Izmir and Corvus, which has vineyards on the island of Bozcaada in the Aegean Sea.

Turkish wine regions

Turkish vineyards are spread across the country. In general, about seven different regions are distinguished with very different climates. The Thrace and Marmara area is (in terms of production) the largest. It is the region that borders Bulgaria. Other wine regions are the islands in and the coast of the Aegean Sea. Historically, wine growing here is strongly linked to Greece. On the mainland of Anatolia, a distinction can be made between Central Anatolia, Northern Anatolia, which lies against the Black Sea, Eastern Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia. Finally, there is the Mediterranean region on the southern coast of Turkey.

Native Turkish grape varieties

Turkey is a grape country and there are an estimated impressive 500 to 1,000 different varieties planted. Not all of them are used for wine production. There are about 35 different varieties. Most of them are indigenous grape varieties. The most important are Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Papazkarasi and Kuntra for red. For white Turkish wines, Narince, Emir, Kabarcik, Dökülgen, Çavuş, Hasandede, Rumi and Vasilaki are important grape varieties.

The Turks also have several European grape varieties in their vineyards. The main ones are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Sémillon, Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Carignan, Shiraz and Alicante Bouchet.