Turkey has along history of producing brilliant wines in a number of regions in country. Historians can trace wine production in Turkey as back as thousands years ago. However a lot of people are still surprised when they first visited Turkey and discover that it is also wine production country. Today Turkey has a fifth-largest vineyard acreage in the world, it is also sixth globally in a grape production. However winemaking industry doesn’t come as high as we could expect , it comes as low as 45th in a world, just ahead of Belarus, India, Cuba according to the Wine Institute.
In a recent years Turkish grapes came back to fame like Kalecik Karasi( black from the small castle) a medium bodied grape most similar to Pinot Noirs, Papaskarasi ( ‘Priest’s Black’) it is very old Thracian grape it makes elegant, fruity wine with high acidity.
Best know Turkish white wine grape is Narince (delicately) which makes wines with floral notes, medium to full bodied with a balanced, good acidity, it can be associated with Chardonnay.
Our passion is to embrace Turkish wines and promote Turkish grapes, by doing that we support boutique wineries like Chamlija, Chateau Kalapak, Gurbuz Winery.
Our story with Turkish wines started in December 2011 when we visited Chateau Kalpak winery and tasted some of his magnificent 2010 vintages. Bulent -founder of winery began his journey in 2003,it was not till 2010 when he released first ever vintage of Chateau Kalpak 2010.
We are working very closely with Mustafa Camlica founder of Chamlija Winery established in 2000 in the small Thracian town of Buyukkaristiran near Bulgaria Strandja Massif, Mustafa daughter Irem is renowned artist and her art work adorns Chamlija wines labels. Mustafa visited our wine bar on a few occasion at the wine tastings.
Akin Gurbuz a leading winemaker-Oenologist in Turkey, who has worked as a consultant for different brands, after returning to country, founded his own brand Gurbuz Winery in Kirkareli. Akin has visited our wine bar on several occasion for wine tastings. Akin’s winery produce premium wines that are elegant, complex and in harmony with nature.