Turkey

The Republic of Turkey (Turkish Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) with its capital Ankara covers 783,562 km². It spans across the two continents Asia (Asien) and Europe (Europa). The Asian part Anatolia makes up 97%, while the European part East Thrace in the far northwest of the country only accounts for 3%, where the main part of Istanbul is also located.

The state borders Greece (Griechenland) and Bulgaria (Bulgarien) to the northwest, Georgia (Georgien), Armenia (Armenien), and Azerbaijan (Aserbaidschan) to the northeast, Iran (Iran) to the east, and Iraq (Irak) and Syria (Syrien) to the southeast. The politically divided island of Cyprus with the Republic of Cyprus (Zypern) and the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is located 70 kilometers off the southern coast. Near the Turkish mainland in the west are the Greek islands Chios (Chios), Kos (Kos), Symi, and Rhodes (Rhodos). Turkey is geographically divided into seven areas or regions.

History

The country has an ancient winemaking tradition, as cultivated vineyards existed in Anatolia, in the region of Transcaucasia (Transkaukasien) (which is considered one of the cradles of wine culture along with Mesopotamia (Mesopotamien) and overlaps significantly with it) and along the coast of the Caspian Sea at least since the 4th millennium BC. Excavations in the city of Catal Hüyük, built in the 7th millennium BC, found representations suggesting winemaking at that time. An ancestor of the variety Kalecik Karasi (Kalecik Karasi) was supposedly known to the Hittites around 1500 BC according to a hypothesis. Recent research suggests that the origin of cultivated grapevines may lie in southeastern Anatolia. Near the border with Armenia (Armenien) lies the famous mountain Ararat (Ararat), where according to the Bible (Bibel), Noah landed with his ark after the flood and "became a winemaker", which should not be understood as "proof".

Modern Winemaking

With the Islamization of the country and the alcohol ban (Alkoholverbot), the first cut regarding winemaking occurred in the 8th century. During the Ottoman period (1300-1920), only Christian minorities such as Greeks (Griechenland) and Armenians (Armenien) were allowed to produce wine with high taxes. In the Tanzimat period, winemaking was revived from the mid-19th century, and exports increased due to the phylloxera disaster (Reblaus-Katastrophe) in Europe and the shortage of wine until the early 20th century to 30 million liters annually. After the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, large areas of land had to be ceded to Greece, and the majority of the Greek minority important for winemaking left the country, leading to another decline.

From 1925, the new republic under the liberal leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) attempted to revive winemaking. The statesman, known as a wine lover, paved the way for private wineries through laws. In 1926, Nihat A. Kutman (+1850) founded the winery "Maison Vinicole" (later operating as Doluca) in Istanbul. The next was Mehmet Cenap And in Ankara in 1929, who named his operation Kavaklidere (Kavaklidere) (Poplar Valley).

Vineyards & Grape Variety Overview

The most important cultivation areas are located in the Aegean region in the west, where a wetter climate (Klima) prevails than in the dry interior, producing two-thirds of the wine. This is the European part with Marmaris and Thrace (Bilecik, Canakkale, Edirne, Kirklareli, Tekirdag), as well as the Aegean coast of Anatolia (Denizli, Izmir, Manisa). Smaller areas are located on the Black Sea (Corum, Kastamonu, Samsun, Tokat), in Central Anatolia (Kirikkale, Kirsehir, Nevsehir, Nigde), Eastern Anatolia (Elazig), and Southeastern Anatolia (Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Mardin, Sanliurfa).

In 2022, the vineyards covered 410,000 hectares of vineyard area, but the wine production volumes (Wein-Produktionsmengen) were only 622,000 hectoliters. Turkey is the world's largest producer of table grapes (Tafeltrauben) with about three-quarters and the second-largest producer of raisins (Rosinen). Both are mostly produced from the Sultaniye variety (Sultana). Traditional products from grapes include the honey-like grape syrup Pekmes (Pekmes) and fermented grape juice Hardaliye (Hardaliye). There are many hundreds of often officially unrecorded autochthonous (autochthon) grape varieties. The negligible share of press varieties (Keltertraube) is only about 14,000 hectares of vineyard area. The grape variety overview of the top 42 (Statistics Kym Anderson (Anderson Kym)):

Producers

The Multi Mey Icki Sanay (formerly the state-owned Tekel) produces a large part of the spirits and wines (since 2011 owned by Diageo). Other companies include Diren, Doluca, Karmen, Taskobirlik, and Kavaklidere (Kavaklidere) produces. Well-known brand wines (Markenwein) include the red wines Buzbag, Villa Neva, and Yakut, as well as the white wines Cankaya, Thraki (Sémillon), and Villa Doluca (Sultaniye and Sémillon). The most important alcoholic beverage (alkoholische Getränke) is the Raki (Raki) made from dried grapes (getrocknete Trauben) (almost exclusively from Tekel), to which anis (Anis) is added. The annual per capita consumption of wine is less than one liter. Great efforts are being made to align with the western quality standard.

Map of Turkey: © Goruma
Source 1st paragraph: WIKIPEDIA Turkey