EGN NEWS DESK
Seyit Karagözoğlu wasn’t there when inspectors came around his wine enterprise, Paşaeli, in 2021.
Besides working the enterprise, Karagözoğlu spends his time driving via Anatolia, making an attempt to protect part of Turkey’s endangered heritage, uncovering the winemaking grapes that point forgot. He was on the street when he acquired a name from his brother, alerting him one thing was fallacious — this was no ordinary audit.
The inspectors combed via Paşaeli’s amenities for 13 hours till they discovered a minor infraction, an excuse, and the brothers have been entangled in a two-year court docket combat. Though they weren’t convicted, they have been finally fined $50,000.
Their crime? Making wine in Turkey at a time when it’s by no means been tougher — or extra vital.
Turkish wine is ripe with contradictions: The grapevine was most certainly first domesticated in southeastern Anatolia, and the nation is presently the sixth largest grape producer on the planet, with about 1,400 indigenous grapes. But the harvest is a wealth of untapped potential, as solely 3 % of harvest is used for winemaking, with many of the grapes going towards raisins and grape molasses.
Meanwhile, latest legal guidelines from the nation’s more and more conservative authorities are making it more durable for impartial wine producers to stay in enterprise. And this yr, after the most well liked summer time in reminiscence, the harvest got here early.
Despite these challenges, nevertheless, there’s a persistent and rising motion amongst winemakers like Karagözoğlu, trying to revive the heritage grapes of Turkey.
Historically, a lot of the nation’s wine heritage was misplaced with the compelled migration and inhabitants exchanges of Anatolia’s Christian minorities within the early twentieth century. When the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian and Greek populations, who historically produced wine, have been compelled out within the aftermath of World War I, manufacturing decreased considerably — and generational information was misplaced with them. And as farmers raze their fields for brand new, extra worthwhile crops, these heritage grape varieties and indigenous vines proceed to be misplaced to time.
This is a pattern that Umay Çeviker is working to reverse. An architect with a ardour for Turkey’s wine grapes, he’s the co-founder of Yaban Kolektif — a bunch centered on selling and preserving Turkey’s viticulture by partnering with small native vineyards to provide wine.
“We owe it to the Greeks, to the Armenians” to revive these historic wine strategies, Çeviker stated. “We aren’t solely shedding varieties, outdated vines, we’re additionally shedding information about adaptation to modifications in local weather patterns.”
Another one of many winemakers working diligently to uncover these historic vines is Udo Hirsch, a mild 81-year-old German transplant in Cappadocia. Hirsch has a steely dedication in terms of nurturing native grape varieties within the land’s volcanic tuff and making wine in historical amphorae.
Under the shadow of a dormant volcano, he strolls via fields of sentimental crumbly soil to select clusters of grapes: He plucks Keten Gömlek, a candy grape with a chunk of bitterness; he picks Bulut, grapes named after the Turkish phrase for cloud; and he picks Taş Üzüm, grapes that develop collectively so tightly they resemble a clenched fist. He then makes use of them to make native wine.
“This place,” Hirsch stated, “is a paradise of grapes.” But that paradise is below risk — from local weather change, agricultural practices and the federal government.
By nurturing native grape varieties which have been uncared for, it’s doable to search out ones that ripen later, which, in flip, may help steadiness the early harvest.
Early and intense warmth all through the summer time this yr affected the rising season and now threatens to influence the wine’s taste. In considered one of Paşaeli’s vineyards in Gedik Köyü, for instance, the grapes ripened by late August as an alternative of late September like ordinary.
Hirsch additionally struggled with the early grape harvest this yr. His firm Gelveri is a small boutique vineyard that solely produces about 5,000 bottles a yr — all hand-labeled by Hirsch and his small crew of workers. By the second week of September, the grape harvest couldn’t be postponed any longer. And when their pickers fell ailing, Hirsch and his spouse needed to decide the grapes themselves. “If we wait too lengthy, the grapes will likely be too candy,” he stated.
Besides these altering situations, there are normal agricultural practices to work round too.
Early on in his winemaking journey, Karagözoğlu realized that few have been cultivating Turkey’s heritage grapes, and thus set out by automotive, alongside together with his Italian advisor Andrea Paoletti, to go to villages and ask farmers if they may take a look at their grapes. Through this course of, he was capable of purchase and domesticate hundreds of kilos of grapes, together with underutilized varieties like Karasakız and Çakal — however it wasn’t all that easy.
After discovering one grape selection, the Koloroko, within the subject of an area farmer, Karagözoğlu purchased some to attempt to vinify it. But when he returned, the farmer had razed his subject that winter to clear the land for a special crop. Eventually, he was capable of purchase sufficient of those grapes from a handful of different native farmers to plant it in his personal vineyards.
And although it could appear small in scale, there are each heritage and local weather advantages to this sort of work. By nurturing native grape varieties which have been uncared for, it’s doable to search out ones that ripen later, which, in flip, may help steadiness the early harvest that may turn out to be increasingly more widespread with local weather change and more and more scorching summers.
Despite the political stress, although, Turkish wine nonetheless has the potential to be as well-known, well-regarded and distinct as wine from Italy or Georgia.
However, presumably the largest impediment to deal with is authorities stress, and it’s solely rising. After years of accelerating bureaucratic restrictions, taxes and shock inspections — together with the one which entangled Karagözoğlu in 2021 — the Turkish authorities launched draft communiqué 2023/50 in December 2023, requiring alcohol producers to place up a considerable amount of collateral primarily based on their manufacturing. This might be an insurmountable impediment for boutique wineries, particularly these simply getting began.
“Today, authorities inspectors have extra authority than a judge after they come to examine our wineries. If they discover one thing fallacious, they’ve the facility to close the corporate down for as much as six months. This is responsible till confirmed harmless, there’s nothing we will do,” Karagözoğlu stated. “Financially, this may be disastrous…. it drains our power.”
Despite the political stress, although, Turkish wine nonetheless has the potential to be as well-known, well-regarded and distinct as wine from Italy or Georgia. The resilience of Turkish grapes and the winemakers cultivating them may also supply classes to the remainder of the world in terms of ecological range within the face of local weather change.
“I’m happy with what we do. I’m happy with producing these wines from these unknown grapes,” Karagözoğlu stated. “In Turkey, we’re sitting on a terrific treasure.”
