Heritage Vines of Turkey

Old Beylerce vines in Bilecik in South East Marmara Region.

An update on all things old vines from our regional ambassador in Turkey.

As we march towards the first anniversary of the inaugural Old Vine Conference we’re taking a look at what progress has been made since our non-profit was founded one year ago and how the old vine movement is impacting the wine community around the world. We asked our Regional Ambassadors for updates from their regions.

Umay Çeviker is our Regional Ambassador in Turkey and is a tenacious advocate for Turkey’s defiantly ancient wine culture. In 2015 he won the Geoffrey Roberts Award for his work with rural vineyards and ancient varieties in Turkey. He writes about wine heritage and culture in Turkish and English, and his insightful articles have been published at jancisrobinson.com. His latest project 'Yaban' connects some of Turkey’s best winemakers with miraculously old vineyards of native varieties.

Here Umay shares the latest news and developments regarding Turkey's old vineyards:

“In 2021 we established a core group called ‘Heritage Vines of Turkey’ consisting of winemakers, winery owners, wine writers and educators. The initiative aims to uncover, register and raise awareness of old vineyards and local varieties. So far we've had several online meetings to establish its principles. I also contacted the market regulator, Tobacco and Alcohol Agency (TADAB), and requested an appointment to inform them about our initiative and seek their support in recognising these old vineyards. I am still waiting to hear from them.

As the Heritage Vines of Turkey group, we conveyed our aim to strengthen our relations with Tekirdağ Viticulture and Research Institute and to cooperate with this organisation that established Turkey's National Collection Vineyard. We learned from the institute that in 2022 they will announce five new (and long-forgotten) varieties suitable for winemaking. They have been experimenting with these varieties and say the results are very promising. As of this year, cuttings of red varieties ‘Karamenüş’, ‘Yayla’ and ‘Tilkiboğan’ and white varieties ‘Ak Sıdağan’ and ‘Beyaz Üzüm’ will be offered for the use of growers.

After Kayra's 'Old Vine Semillon' and Paşaeli's 'Old Vine Series' consisting of 'Yapıncak', 'Sıdalan' and 'Çakal', Selefkia Wines in Mersin became the latest winery to use this phrase on its label of ‘Old Vine Patkara’. This is a red variety local to the Taurus Mountains in the Mediterranean.

The tireless Thracian producer Chamlija, on the other hand, is experimenting with Ten Göynek, Aküzüm and Sıkkara varieties from old vineyards in the Hüyük region of Konya province in Central Anatolia. Being the first release to come from this unexpected region (considering the modern Turkish wine map), the 2020s are very promising.

Yaban’s 500 litre clay Küps hand-made in Avanos Cappadocia.

Last year, as part of my collective 'Yaban', we vinified four different grapes. Apart from ‘Karasakız’, which comes from an old vineyard in Çanakkale, which we bought and saved from being uprooted last year, we used the ‘Erciş Karası’ variety of the Van region in far eastern Anatolia and the white varieties ‘Sungurlu’ and ‘Beylerce’ in the 2021 vintage.”

We would like to thank Umay for his tireless support and collaboration with us on the subject of old vines in Turkey.

By Umay Çeviker & Belinda Stone