History of wine making on this land starts 2000 years ago, the age of Hittites. The historical origin of wine is a matter of dispute. Some researchers point Caucasian region, and some others ancient Persia. But it's almost certain that Anatolia is the region where wine had spread all over the world.

In Byzantine times, especially Thrace and Cappadocia were major wine producing areas.

In Ottoman era, the Muslim community did not deal with producing wine. This was largely carried through by Greeks and Armenians. But the Muslim Turks were enthusiastic wine consumers.

At that time, the wines from Ankara, Erdek, Gallipoli, Crete and Cyprus were the favorites of the taverns of Istanbul.

The Sultan Mohammad II who conquered Istanbul was also a wine lover. He himself wrote some poems for wine.

Sultan Murad 4^th, banned all types of alcohol, tobacco and coffee. But he himself was a great wine lover.

Muslim countries generally have mixed attribute to alcohol. Even in most extreme cases like Iran and Saudi Arabia, (although forbidden by law) alcohol consumption is rather common.

Turkey's situation is somewhere between Muslim countries and Europe.

As an interesting figure, 28% of the total population does not drink alcohol because of the religious reasons.

You see, alcohol consumption is not so low, but the major choice of the consumers is not wine. Turkish people prefer "beer" and "raki" (our traditional high-alcohol beverage).

It's very interesting that while Turkey is 4^th major grape producer of the world, she is number 41 in producing wine, just behind Turkmenistan and Tunisia. And also, some important portion of the Turkish wine is consumed by foreign tourists.

The Only 16% of Turkish people drink wine.

There are virtually no limitation over alcohol by the state. But the attitude of the "extremely conservative government " is negative. The special tax on wine and other beverages are so high that it's the main threat to Turkish wines.

By February 2008, the government had to reduce the special tax on table wine, but still the special tax is over 360% (it was over 600% before - yes six hundred percent).

(Figures are taken from a research made by ProCon GfK)

In May 2009, famous wine expert Jancis Robinson visited Turkey for a serious wine tasting event. She evaluated some 50 of selected Turkish wines. Her evaluation seems to yield more optimistic results than I expected.

Here's her article about these 50 selected Turkish wines:

  Modern Turkish tasting notes