This was our first visit and we didn’t really know what to expect from Turkey and we certainly knew nothing about Turkish wine. I knew that Eastern Turkey (along with Georgia and Armenia) gave birth to wine around 8000 years ago and that Istanbul was a spectacular, historic city, but not much more. How impressed were we with Turkey, its wine, the history, and its people? The answer is very!
Our first taste of Turkish wine was accompanied by an amusing serving ceremony for a beef dish cooked in a small clay pot, which was broken open in front of us. We loved the food and our first bottle of truly Turkish wine but I remember feeling a little disrespectful sipping wine on the terrace of a street-side restaurant in a Muslim country.
This slightly uncomfortable feeling subsided the more we drank of course, especially as our Okuzgozu – Bogazkere blend was quite high alcohol at 14.5%! Okuzgozu means “bullseye” due to its large, black grapes and Bogazkere means “Throat Burner” probably due to its high alcohol and tannins….the blend is much better than the variety names suggest!
Our Facebook for some Turkey wine visits
In the touristy areas of Istanbul, such as Taksim or Sultanahmet, we saw that for foreigners and non-Muslims there is not really an issue with drinking in restaurants and hotels. With tourism being such a large income generator for Turkey certain non-Muslim practices appear to be tolerated, but on the flip side, we experienced areas of the country where there is significantly less or no acceptance.
Istanbul has been a bridge between East and West and the movement and trading of many products including wine have gone on for centuries. With Turkey banning wine promotion at home domestic winemakers are re-doubling their efforts abroad and winning acclaim from international wine critics.
When we visited Vino Dessera the owner and winemaker Dogan Donmez told us that he had always planned on opening a vineyard hotel but that he moved everything forward as a way to legally offer guests tastings. It seems crazy that a winery cannot provide a tour and tasting but the law forbids it we were told and now many wineries are opening their own hotels.
This is a great thing in our opinion, the views from three vineyard hotels we visited are spectacular, the wines superb and there is nothing better than kicking back at sunset and sipping a wine made from 8000-year-old indigenous grapes, gazing over the Sea of Marmara.
If you browse the Turkey pages on this website you will see some of the visits we enjoyed to wineries in Thrace and Cappadocia. Combining these wine-related visits with the incredible historical wealth and stunning landscapes, Turkey really is an amazing country to travel in.
