A new taste of Turkey

There’s been a real boom in the quality of wines made from across diverse regions and varieties over the past 20 years, says Isa Bal MS, who picks out his best buys.

Turkey is full of surprises for wine lovers, offering much more than simple, cheap wines to wash down your kebabs and meze dishes while on a beach holiday.

Although Turkey is today the sixth largest grape-growing country in the world, commercial winemaking is still a very small industry dominated by the handful of wineries that are both willing and financially able to navigate the country’s heavily regulated alcohol laws. Increasing numbers of women are also involved, from production to marketing, which is to be celebrated and encouraged.

Varieties

Turkey is reportedly home to about 1,000 indigenous grape varieties, but only 30 or so are used in winemaking. Key local red grapes include the tannic, almost Nebbiolo- like Bog ̆azkere, the fruity Oküzgözü and light Kalecik Karası; while in the whites, steely Emir and opulent Narince are most common, with the rarer Kinali Yapıncak gaining popularity. International varieties are widely planted: Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for whites and Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc plus Syrah for reds.

Turkish Wine Regions

The country is divided into seven different geographical regions, with the Aegean, Marmara and Central Anatolia accounting for the lion’s share of production. Elazıg and Diyarbakır in eastern Anatolia are known for Oküzgözü and Bog ̆azkere respectively, and red blends containing both varieties are great food wines. Nearby Tokat is home to the white Narince grape, which has the potential to make some of Turkey’s best whites.

The Urla and Güney plateaus in the Aegean region are important areas of viticultural activity, mainly for international varieties – Güney in particular, whose cool climate at 900m altitude means the harvest continues into November. Thrace in Marmara, too, is a well-established area for both local and international grapes, and many producers are located here.

More famous as a tourist destination, the Central Anatolian region of Cappadocia is also an important viticultural area boasting volcanic soils and a continental climate, perfect for high-acid mineral whites like Emir.

Compared with 20 years ago, there is a marked increase in quality of wines made in Turkey today. Vineyard management and winery ownership has gone through a lot of change, and there is far more expertise in the cellar; poor oak and oxidation issues are largely consigned to history. In tasting more than 60 wines blind for this selection, I found the reds to be generally better made than the whites, and international varieties better understood than the local grapes (perhaps natural, with so many global resources available).

Disappointingly, I found the variety of wine styles limited, given the myriad grapes, soils and climatic conditions across the country. Production is focused mainly on ‘safe’ red and white table wines, at the expense of what could be exciting ‘adventurous’ styles, as well as rosés, sparkling, sweet and fortified wines.

The next target for the Turkish wine industry is consistency of quality. The results are starting to show, as these 17 wines prove.

History

The Anatolian peninsula, which makes up most of modern-day Turkey, has a documented vinous history of 7,000 years.

Southeastern Turkey, where the peninsula borders Syria, is believed to be a likely origin of grape domestication (viticulture) dating back to 9000 BC. Even the word ‘wine’ is said to be influence by the Hittite language ‘wiyana’ when the Hittites ruled these lands between 1600-1178 BC.

When the Turks arrived in 11th century and converted itself from Greek Christianity to Islam, consuming and producing alcohol became a taboo. Largely out of economic reasons, the Ottoman Empire (1299-1923) allowed non-Muslim minorities (Greeks, Armenians, Syrians among the others) to produce alcohol, but under strict regulations and heavy tax.

By the end of 19th century, while the major winemaking country in Europe were devastated by phylloxera, rising demands for wine was met with a freer and more liberate political atmosphere in Anatolia, which in turn nourished a booming wine industry before World War I.

From 1920s, alongside private producers Doluca of Thrace and Kavaklıdere of Ankara, the newly established republic stepped in to revive winemaking in Turkey with state-owned monopoly Tekel. In the 1950s, the government initiated planting schemes of French grapes including Semillon, Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon in Aegean and Thrace. But a real drive for quality didn’t come until 1990s, when boutique producers Sarafin and Gülor pioneered success with international varietal wines. Modern winemaking technology also supported the transformation of Turkish wine scene.*

(*Updated on 6th April 2020. Reference: The Oxford Companion to Wine and Viticulture in Turkey (2016) in Chronica Horticulturae 56(2):27-31. )

17 Turkish wines to try