Wine lands on the rise

Turkey’s history stretches back to include the very origins of wine, yet its modern industry is but a few decades young. As the country enters a new phase of rediscovering its own wine identity, our expert with the inside track introduces Turkey’s regions, key producers, grape varieties and their many complexities

- FERIDE YALAV-HECKEROTH

Turkey’s wine scene is on the cusp of change, with a growing movement to revive indigenous grapes making it one of the most exciting new frontiers in the world of wine.

It’s also a country of contradictions, with the world’s fifth-largest vineyard area (410,000ha in 2022, according to OIV), but only 3% of the annual grape harvest used for winemaking (OIV 2019 report); a country where a 2013 legal move banned any promotion of alcohol, but which has managed to snag more than 1,000 medals and commendations at the Decanter World Wine Awards since it started in 2004.

To understand Turkey’s unique viticulture, it’s essential to look at its past. Southeastern Anatolia is now considered one of the two prime locations in which the grapevine was first domesticated, around 9,500-5,000 BCE (Science, March 2023). In the seven geographical regions that now compose modern Turkey, viticulture existed continually throughout the centuries, and although alcohol was prohibited during the Ottoman era (14th century through to 1922), non-Muslim communities were allowed to manufacture and trade it.

FROM STATE TO PRIVATE

The breaking point occurred in 1923 when, during the aftermath of World War I and the Turkish war of independence, Armenian and Greek communities (the country's main wine producers) were forced to migrate. Vineyards and wineries were abandoned and failed efforts to revive them during the era of the newly formed secular Turkish Republic eventually led to a state-run monopolistic market for much of the 20th century. It wasn't until the 1990s that Turkey's first boutique vineyards emerged, planting international grape varieties, often under the guidance of foreign consultants.