The challenge for Turkish winegrowers: reviving the wine tradition after a "dark century"

Reviving the ancient wine culture of Anatolia, which has been diminished by the departure of the Christian population since the end of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, is a challenge faced by several winegrowers in Turkey, determined to create quality brands with native grape varieties. The Urla and Çesme area, west of Izmir, on the Aegean coast, is ideal for vineyards, explains Can Ortabas, founder of the Urla Sarapçilik winery and a leader among those who aim to give new life to wine in Turkey. "The soils are poor, clayey and limestone, there are sea breezes and strong temperature differences. We plant several local, endemic varieties, as well as international ones such as Cabernet-Sauvignon or Shiraz," Ortabas explains to EFE. With 4 million tonnes a year, Turkey is the world's seventh largest producer of grapes, but produces only 70 million litres of wine a year, a tenth of that of Portugal. This was not always the case. "A hundred years ago, the Çesme peninsula alone (about ...