Turkey is one of the world's oldest and most genetically diverse wine regions, with 600 to 1,200 indigenous Turkish grape varieties—more than almost any other country. Yet Turkish wines remain largely undiscovered by global consumers, making them a frontier of exceptional value and authenticity for wine enthusiasts seeking distinctive character. This guide is intended for wine enthusiasts, sommeliers, and travellers interested in exploring the unique world of Turkish grapes and wines. Understanding Turkish grapes is essential to appreciating the diversity and heritage of one of the world's oldest wine cultures.
This guide explores Turkey's rich viticultural heritage, from the state monopoly era through the modern boutique renaissance, profiling the country's signature indigenous grapes alongside the international varieties that complement them. To help you navigate this landscape, major themes are clearly signposted, allowing readers to locate key topics quickly:
Grouped under these clear headings, the guide allows skimmers and in-depth readers alike to access the information they value most.
Turkey is one of the world’s oldest wine cultures, with viticulture in Anatolia stretching back 7,000–9,000 years and early domestication of Vitis vinifera in the southeast. Today’s Turkish wine industry has been reshaped by the post-Tekel era: privatization in the 1990s–2000s, a wave of boutique wineries, revived indigenous grapes, rapidly growing production and consumption, and hundreds of awards on the international stage.
Viticulture in Anatolia dates back 7,000 to 9,000 years, positioning Turkey alongside the Caucasus as one of the earliest centers of vine domestication. Archaeological evidence reveals that Vitis vinifera was first domesticated in southeastern Anatolia between 9500 and 5000 BCE.
Imagine a day in the Hittite capital around 2000 BCE: a vintner walks among neatly trellised vines at sunrise, checking bunches heavy with ripening fruit, conscious that their careful cultivation was protected and regulated by royal decree. As the sun climbs, neighbours gather to recount the king’s laws on harvest sharing and vineyard boundaries—grape growing here is tradition, community, and livelihood all at once. Centuries later, in the 6th century BCE, under the Phrygians, clay amphorae filled with Anatolian wine were loaded onto ships bound for Marseille. One can picture a bustling Anatolian harbour at dawn, merchants overseeing the careful sealing of earthen jars with resin and wax, inscribing them with origins for shipment across the Aegean—early evidence of Turkey’s enduring role in world wine history.
The contemporary Turkish wine scene has undergone a dramatic transformation since the mid-1990s. The privatization of the state-owned monopoly Tekel in 2004 ended decades of centralized control, encouraging new investment and spurring the emergence of boutique wineries that employ modern vinification techniques. Wine production in Turkey has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium, and consumption has nearly tripled. Since then, Turkish wines have won more than 1,000 awards in international competitions, and the number of wineries has grown from a handful to approximately 140–200 producers nationwide. This renaissance has been characterized by a concerted effort to rescue and revive indigenous grape varieties that were nearly lost due to neglect.
In Turkey, the Hittites established laws regulating viticulture around 2000 BCE, underscoring the vital role wine played in their society.
During the Ottoman Empire (14th–19th centuries), wine production persisted mainly within non-Muslim communities—Greeks, Armenians, Syriacs, and Jews—due to Islamic prohibitions on alcohol consumption. These groups preserved viticultural traditions in key regions such as Thrace, the Aegean, and Cappadocia.These communities maintained viticultural traditions in regions such as Thrace, the Aegean, and Cappadocia. At its height in 1904, Turkey produced 340 million litres of wine annually, with significant exports to Europe as phylloxera devastated continental vineyards. However, the Turkish wine industry faced significant challenges after World War I, resulting in a decline in production and quality.
Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk promoted the modernization of the wine industry, bringing in experts from Bordeaux and establishing the country's first commercial state-owned winery in Tekirdağ in 1925. Tekel (literally meaning "monopoly") was established to oversee the production and distribution of tobacco, alcohol, and salt, and later became the sole manufacturer and distributor of all alcoholic products in Turkey.
Since the 1980s, economic liberalization has eroded Tekel's monopoly. In 2004, the alcohol division was sold to a Turkish consortium and rebranded as Mey İçki. In 2008, Tekel was sold to British American Tobacco, and the trademark was discontinued. This privatization opened the market to private wineries and sparked the quality revolution that continues today.
Turkey boasts the fifth-largest vineyard area in the world, spanning approximately 410,000 to 505,000 hectares under vine. To put this in perspective, Turkey’s vineyard acreage rivals the combined size of Bordeaux and Burgundy, two of France’s most renowned wine regions. This places Turkey just behind Spain, France, China, and Italy. Annual grape production reaches around 4 million metric tons. Despite this substantial acreage, the vineyard area has declined by nearly 20% over the past decade due to urbanization and farmers switching to more profitable crops.
Only a small fraction of Turkey's grapes, estimated at 3% to 15%, depending on the region, are processed into wine. The majority are consumed fresh, dried as raisins (particularly the famous Sultaniye variety from the Aegean), or distilled into rakı. This means that most of Turkey's remarkable grape diversity never finds its way into a wine glass, and countless unique aromas and flavours are lost to drying or distillation. For wine lovers, the fact that more than 90% of grapes bypass fermentation is both a missed opportunity and an intriguing challenge: what distinctive tastes, textures, and local expressions might be hidden among the varieties destined for the fruit bowl or drying racks, rather than the cellar?
Wine tourism has grown significantly, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism promoting designated "Vineyard Routes" in Thrace, Urla (Aegean), and Cappadocia. The Thrace Vineyard Route connects boutique producers across Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, Şarköy, and the Gelibolu Peninsula, while Cappadocia offers unique experiences, such as wine tastings in rock-carved cellars.
Turkey's geography provides a diverse range of terroirs, with commercial production concentrated in four main regions: Aegean, Thrace, Central Anatolia, and Eastern/Southeast Anatolia. Turkey's mountainous terrain means vineyards are often located at high altitudes, which cools the growing environment and extends the ripening period.
Central Anatolia encompasses two critical wine centers. Cappadocia, with its volcanic tuff soils and vineyards at elevations up to 1,200 meters, is home to the white grape Emir—prized for its mineral character derived from the unique geological landscape of fairy chimneys. The Kalecik district near Ankara features a microclimate created by the Kızılırmak River and soils rich in marine fossils, providing optimum conditions for the Kalecik Karası grape.
Turkey’s wine story extends far beyond its flagship regions, with important production zones spread across Thrace, the Marmara basin, the Aegean coast, and Southeast Anatolia. Thrace supplies roughly a third of Turkish wine and hosts key subzones like Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, and Şarköy; the Aegean offers coastal and high-altitude microclimates for grapes such as Urla Karası, Bornova Misketi, Karalahna, Vasilaki, and Çalkarası; while Southeast Anatolia preserves ancient viticultural centers like Elazığ, Diyarbakır, and Mardin, homeland of Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, and other historic varieties.
A Turkish grape is an indigenous variety of Vitis vinifera that originated in or has historically been cultivated within Anatolia's diverse terroirs. These grapes have adapted over millennia to local conditions—volcanic soils, extreme temperature swings, and high altitudes—developing unique characteristics that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
Indigenous grapes represent Turkey's viticultural soul. Varieties like Öküzgözü ("ox's eye"), Boğazkere ("throat burner"), and Emir ("ruler") carry names rooted in the Turkish language and folklore. The rescue of near-extinct varieties such as Kalecik Karası and Urla Karası by dedicated academics and winemakers has become a point of national pride, symbolizing cultural preservation alongside oenological achievement.
Turkey's indigenous varieties represent an irreplaceable genetic treasury. Estimates for the total number of native grape varieties in Turkey vary widely, with authoritative sources placing the range between 600 and 1,500. This broad range is due to different classification methodologies and ongoing research into the country's grape biodiversity. Of these, approximately 50 to 60 are cultivated for commercial winemaking, while most of the remainder are used as table grapes or for dried fruit. The vast majority of Turkey's grapes never become wine, leaving the full potential of this unique diversityuntapped. Nonetheless, the roughly 60 commercial indigenous varieties are significant to Turkish cuisine and viticulture, producing wines with distinct flavour profiles found nowhere else in the world. Indigenous grapes like Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Narince, and Emir have become symbols of Turkish wine identity, differentiating the country's wines from the international mainstream.
Indigenous and international grape varieties play different but complementary roles in Turkish wine. Native grapes like Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, and Emir express Anatolia’s unique terroir and give Turkish wines their distinctive identity, while international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah provide familiar flavor profiles, blending options, and greater accessibility for global drinkers.
Turkish wine production utilizes both indigenous and international varieties, often in creative blends. Red varieties dominate prestige production, though white wines—particularly from Narince and Emir—are gaining recognition.
Wines from high-altitude sites (above 1,000 meters) in Central and Eastern Anatolia tend to have higher acidity, greater aromatic intensity, and greater aging potential. Coastal Aegean wines are typically softer and more immediately approachable. Thracian wines often achieve an elegant balance between the two extremes.
Turkish winemakers craft wines from a wide range of native varieties. Among the most popular are Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Narince, and Emir. Each of them has unique characteristics, food pairings and serving requirements.
Öküzgözü is Turkey's most widely planted red grape variety, producing succulent wines with fine, voluminous tannins and gorgeously plummy fruit. Öküzgözü ("ox's eye") originates from the highland vineyards of Eastern Anatolia centred on Elazığ Province. The name refers to the grape's notably large, round berries. Planted at elevations of 1,000–1,200 meters where severe winters and pronounced diurnal temperature variation contribute to high acidity and aromatic intensity, Öküzgözü produces medium-bodied wines with bright red fruit aromas (cherry, raspberry), balanced acidity, and relatively soft tannins.
Boğazkere ("throat burner") is one of Turkey's most powerful and characterful grapes, native to Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia along the historic Tigris River. The small, dark, thick-skinned berries produce deeply coloured, highly tannic wines with bold flavour profiles featuring sour cherry, red-fruit notes like cherry, and spice notes. Boğazkere is often blended with Öküzgözü and international varieties, producing full-bodied wines with black-cherry and pepper aromas. Boğazkere is often blended with Öküzgözü, creating Turkey's classic "Buzbağ" style—Boğazkere contributes power and structure while Öküzgözü provides softer, fruit-forward notes.
Kalecik Karası originated in the Kalecik district of Ankara Province, where the Kızılırmak River creates a unique microclimate. Nearly extinct due to phylloxera and neglect, it was rescued in the 1970s by Prof. Dr. Y. Sabit Ağaoğlu of Ankara University through clonal selection.
Often called "the Turkish Pinot Noir," Kalecik Karası produces light- to medium-bodied wines with a ruby-red colour, lasting red-fruit aromas (strawberry, cherry, raspberry), and a distinctive cotton-candy note. The wines feature smooth texture, balanced acidity, and soft tannins.
Narince ("delicate") is a white grape indigenous to the Tokat region along the Black Sea Coast. It has been called "the Turkish Chardonnay" for its neutral flavour profile, good aging potential, and responsiveness to oak aging. The thin-skinned berries produce full-bodied whites with tropical and white stone fruit flavours, excellent structure, and superb acidity. Narince is a white grape variety that typically has floral and pink grapefruit aromas, and can be made either dry or medium-sweet.
Emir ("ruler") is a native white grape of Cappadocia, with most plantings in Nevşehir Province. Used since Roman times to make crisp, refreshing wines favoured by the local nobility, Emir flourishes on the volcanic soils (tuff, sandstone) of Cappadocia, producing crisp white wines with green reflections, green-apple and mineral notes on the nose, and a lively, high-acid palate. Emir is a white grape variety known for its high acidity and mineral, savoury wines that are sharper and more complex than Narince.
Turkish red wines are built around a core set of native grapes that define style across the country. Key varieties such as Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Papazkarası, and Çalkarası span a spectrum from light, aromatic, and high-acid to deeply structured and age-worthy, with traditional blends and modern mixes with international grapes widening the stylistic range.
Turkish red wines range from light, aromatic, fruity reds to full-bodied, age-worthy reds. Kalecik Karası offers Pinot Noir-like elegance, while Boğazkere delivers power comparable to Tannat or Sagrantino. The classic Öküzgözü-Boğazkere blend (Buzbağ style) represents a middle ground—structured yet approachable.
Modern Turkish winemakers frequently blend indigenous varieties with international grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon-Boğazkere and Syrah-Öküzgözü combinations are increasingly common, marrying the familiar structure of international varieties with the distinctive aromatics of Turkish natives.
International grapes have been widely planted since the 1990s boutique winery revolution. The most common include:
Bordeaux-style blends using Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot are popular.
Rhône-inspired GSM (Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre) combinations are found at wineries like Barbare in Thrace.
International varieties are often blended with native grapes such as Boğazkere and Öküzgözü to create wines that bridge Turkish identity with global accessibility.
International varieties provide structural familiarity in export markets, while indigenous grapes contribute a distinctive regional character. This approach has helped Turkish wines gain international recognition while maintaining their authentic identity.
Turkish red wines span a clear style spectrum, from light, aromatic reds to powerful, tannic bottles and classic indigenous blends. Grapes like Kalecik Karası, Papazkarası, Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, and Çalkarası produce everything from Pinot-like, early-drinking wines to age-worthy, structured reds, while modern blending and a challenging domestic market shape how these styles are made, priced, and sold.
Per capita wine consumption in Turkey remains below 1 litre annually due to religious and cultural factors. However, vibrant wine culture exists in urban centers (Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara) and tourism regions. The industry is increasingly focused on export-quality and direct-to-consumer sales through wine tourism.
High excise taxes (Special Consumption Tax) and VAT contribute to elevated retail prices, while the 2013 advertising ban restricts marketing capabilities. These factors have pushed wineries toward quality-focused production and experiential tourism as primary business strategies.
The 2013 amendments to the "Tobacco and Alcohol Regulation" banned all advertising of alcohol products across media—television, radio, cinema, print, social media, and digital platforms. Brand logos may only appear on service materials in licensed establishments. Sponsoring events is prohibited, and consumer wine tastings at retail points are forbidden.
Without traditional marketing channels, wineries have pivoted to wine tourism, trade-focused education events, and specialized publications. International wine competitions and export markets have become critical for brand building.
As of the mid-2020s, Turkey has approximately 140 licensed wineries, ranging from large-scale industrial producers (Kavaklıdere, Doluca, Kayra) to small boutique estates. Some sources estimate nearly 200–300, including every new venture. The industry is concentrated in Thrace, the Aegean, and Central Anatolia.
Turkish wines offer an extraordinary journey into one of the world's most ancient yet least explored wine cultures. From the volcanic soils of Cappadocia to the sun-drenched Aegean coast, indigenous varieties like Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Narince, and Emir deliver flavours found nowhere else on earth—wines that tell stories of millennia-old traditions revived by passionate modern winemakers.
Whether seeking the bold tannic grip of Boğazkere with grilled lamb, the Pinot-like elegance of Kalecik Karası with Mediterranean fare, or the crisp minerality of Emir alongside fresh seafood, Turkish wines reward the curious palate. As boutique producers continue pushing quality boundaries while honouring ancestral grape varieties, now is the ideal moment to discover these remarkable wines before the world catches on.
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