Turkish Wine Guide: Notes from an Ancient Cellar

A glass with a view. Evening wine paired with the lights of Beyoğlu at Mikla.

Americans arrive in Istanbul thinking about mosques, bazaars, and the Bosphorus, and almost never about wine. I was no different. Then I sat down to dinner at Mikla, Mehmet Gürs's restaurant on the rooftop of the Marmara Pera in Beyoğlu. I let the sommelier pair Turkish wines with his Anatolian tasting menu, drawn from a cellar of some 450 labels. By the end of the evening, I had tasted grapes I could barely pronounce, from regions I had never heard of, and I spent the rest of the trip ordering them. Türkiye is one of the world's largest grape producers, yet only a small share of its harvest becomes wine. What does become wine comes from a remarkable list of native varieties that most international travelers have never tasted.

A Long Inheritance

Anatolia sits within the broad region where wine culture first took shape. The earliest widely accepted chemical evidence of grape wine comes from neighboring Georgia, from Neolithic sites dated to around 6000 BCE. Türkiye's distinction lies in continuity rather than origin. The Hittites poured wine as an offering to their gods. Greek and Roman settlers planted vineyards along the Aegean, and Byzantine monasteries tended them.

Under Ottoman rule, Greek, Armenian, and Jewish communities kept the craft alive. When phylloxera devastated the vineyards of France in the late nineteenth century, Ottoman wine was shipped west in significant volume to fill French barrels. The Republic later placed production under a state monopoly, and private houses such as Doluca and Kavaklıdere were founded in the 1920s. Today a younger generation of winemakers is turning back toward the indigenous grapes their predecessors nearly abandoned.

A quick roadmap to Anatolia’s native grapes. From Thrace to Eastern Anatolia, Türkiye’s wine regions are as diverse as its history.

Kalecik Karası

Kalecik Karası grows in the Kalecik district northeast of Ankara and nearly disappeared in the twentieth century. Researchers at Ankara University helped revive it. The wine is light to medium in body, with soft tannins and notes of sour cherry, strawberry, and a hint of spice, and it will feel familiar to anyone who loves Pinot Noir. Its restraint suits the table: grilled lamb chops, mushrooms roasted with thyme, or a plate of aged kaşar cheese.

Öküzgözü

The rugged landscapes of Eastern Anatolia’s Elazığ province, where high altitudes and mountain slopes give birth to the vibrant, fruit-forward Öküzgözü grape.

The name means "ox eye," after the grape's large, dark berries. It comes from the Elazığ region of eastern Anatolia and makes wines with bright acidity, gentle tannins, and flavors of plum, cherry, and pomegranate. It is lovely alone. It is even better beside hünkar beğendi, the Ottoman palace dish of braised lamb served over smoked eggplant blended with cheese and béchamel.

Boğazkere

Boğazkere, from around Diyarbakır in the southeast, translates loosely as "throat burner." The name is an honest description of its dark color, firm tannins, and black-fruit depth. Drinkers who like Tannat or structured Cabernet Sauvignon will recognize the type. Blended with Öküzgözü, which softens its edges, it becomes Türkiye's classic red. A blend of Öküzgözü and Boğazkere is the single most useful phrase to carry onto a Turkish wine list, especially when slow-roasted lamb or a spiced Adana kebab is on the way.

Narince

Narince comes from Tokat, in the Black Sea region, and its name derives from narin, meaning delicate. Local cooks have long prized its leaves for stuffed grape leaves. In the glass, it ranges from crisp and citrusy to rounder, oak-aged styles scented with orange blossom, quince, and ripe pear. If you enjoy textured Chardonnay, pair it with grilled sea bass or an eggplant-and-herb mezze.

Emir

Cappadocia's fairy chimneys and balloons draw the crowds, but its volcanic tuff soils, high altitude, and cold nights also produce Emir. This white grape, whose name means "lord," makes taut, dry wines with green apple, lemon, and a mineral finish close to a lean Sauvignon Blanc. Pair it with fish or the region's clay-pot dishes, and book a cellar visit between your mornings in Göreme and Uçhisar.

Sunset, hot air balloons, and a glass of wine over the volcanic landscapes of Cappadocia.

The Regions Beyond the City

Along the Aegean, the Urla wine route outside İzmir links boutique wineries reviving local grapes such as Urla Karası and Bornova Misketi. Many have restaurants that overlook the olive groves and the sea. Cappadocia's cellars are carved into the same soft rock as its cave hotels. Thrace, a few hours northwest of Istanbul around Tekirdağ and Şarköy, is the easiest excursion from the city. There, native Papazkarası and Adakarası grow alongside French varieties near the Sea of Marmara.

Drinking Turkish Wine in Istanbul

You can taste the whole country without leaving the city. Where a wine bar offers flights, compare a Kalecik Karası against an Öküzgözü and Boğazkere blend, or a Narince against an Emir. Two glasses side by side will teach you more than any label. Turkish cooking extends far beyond kebabs, so pair as you go: Emir with grilled octopus, Narince with sea bass, a Boğazkere blend with lamb.

Expect to pay more than you might assume. Türkiye taxes alcohol heavily, and domestic bottles can cost as much as imported wine at home. Shops are also barred from selling alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., so buy any bottle for your hotel room before dinner. Ordering by the glass and asking the server for a recommendation is probably your best bet.

What the Glass Remembers

Sağlığınıza! (To your health!) Ending the night with a glass of Anatolian red.

Istanbul will always be loved for the Hagia Sophia, the Süleymaniye, and its extraordinary table. Its wine tells another chapter of the same story: Hittite offerings, Armenian and Greek vintners, French barrels filled during the phylloxera years, and young winemakers replanting nearly lost vines. The next time you sit down to dinner above the Bosphorus, ask what Turkish wine the house is pouring tonight, and where it was grown.

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