Türkiye

The Ministry of Trade's 2019 sector paper calls Anatolia "the motherland of vineyards and wine" and says evidence indicates that the Pre-Hittites living in Anatolia between 3000 and 4000 BC made wine and called it "vino". These are the Ministry's claims; the paper cites no archaeological study and they are not checked here. The paper describes the modern sector. Türkiye has traditionally specialised in table grapes and raisins: of about 4 million tonnes of grapes in 2016, roughly half were eaten fresh and a third dried. Besides the large companies there are almost 300 small producers, with a total capacity of about 120 million litres. In 2017 Türkiye exported almost 2.9 million litres of wine worth 9.7 million dollars, mainly to Northern Cyprus, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The Ministry says vineyards are spread over the whole country but production is concentrated in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Central Anatolian regions; wine companies are mostly in Marmara–Thrace, the Aegean and Central Anatolia, especially in Tekirdağ, Nevşehir, İzmir and Denizli. It describes conditions through its main grapes. Kalecik Karası grows in Central Anatolia under the microclimate of the Kızılırmak. Narince comes from Tokat, on the Anatolian plateau south of the mountains near the Black Sea. Boğazkere grows in Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Malatya and Gaziantep on red, gravelly soil with limestone and sometimes clay. Sultaniye is planted in western Anatolia on very fertile sandy soil at about 200 m under Mediterranean influence, and on clay-like soil at 1,200 m in a continental climate. Çalkarası grows mainly around Denizli in goblet vineyards on sandy, less fertile plateau soils at about 1,200 m.

The Ministry of Trade describes Kalecik Karası as the best Central Anatolian red grape, giving smooth, fruity wines with fig, rose and strawberry aromas. Öküzgözü, grown mainly in Elazığ and Malatya, gives bright red wines with high acidity. Boğazkere is dark, thick-skinned and tannic, though less tannic in Denizli. Narince gives balanced, greenish-yellow whites that can age. Emir gives delicate, fresh dry whites and suits sparkling wine. Sultaniye gives light, smooth, aromatic wines and Çalkarası pale, fruity rosés.

The Ministry's paper does not describe a national appellation system for wine, and no Turkish wine names appear in the EU register. It says Türkiye could grow around 1,250 grape varieties and has 34 wine grapes, 22 of them valuable native varieties, and that most Turkish wines are made from native grapes, sometimes blended with European ones. Its table of wine grapes by region lists Yapıncak, Vasilaki, Adakarası, Papazkarası and Karalahana with Pinot Noir, Gamay and Cinsaut in Marmara and Thrace; Bornova Misketi, Sultaniye and Çalkarası with Carignan, Grenache, Merlot and Cabernet in the Aegean; Emir, Hasandede, Narince, Kalecik Karası, Öküzgözü and Boğazkere in Central Anatolia; and Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Dökülgen and Horozkarası in the south-east.