Turquazz: Wines Routes of Turkey
My fourth article for Turquazz is now live! What began as a celebration of Turkey’s devotion to jazz and its own Anatolian music has developed into a full-blown exaltation of Anatolian music and culinary arts.
“From the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, from Greece to the Iranian border – what is known as Anatolia has a lot to offer, not only a varied landscape but also a long history and multi-faceted culture. For certain, Anatolia is a place of endless stories once you explore its abundant riches. What we focus on today here are the contemporary approaches to this cultural mosaic that is Anatolian culture. There are two words that spring to mind when mentioning culture: flavour and melody. These words have a crucial place in our brand. The ‘zz’ at the end of our name ‘Turquazz’ is a nod to jazz music, the bravura of musical mastery. Turquazz is a cultural movement which aspires to bring Anatolian music and culinary art, artists and creatives and new audiences together.”
What will I be writing about? Wine! Of course! For this piece, I go beyond the simple building blocks and delve into Turkish wine routes and wine tourism.
The Wine Routes of Turkey
Turkish wine tourism is still in a nascent stage. A number of factors continue to hamper its development but the wineries are enthusiastically embracing it. In many areas, wineries are located in remote places far from anything else making visiting complicated. However, wineries are rapidly adding restaurants and hotels to facilitate visitors. Something else Turkish wineries have embraced to entice tourism: wine routes.
The wine routes of Turkey
Turkey is currently home to four wine routes. For the most part, these are loose associations of wineries within the same geographic area. Some, like the Trakya Bağ Rotası and the İç Ege Bağ Rotası cover huge areas. Of the three, really only the Urla Bağ Yolu is complete in the sense that all participating wineries accept visitors, the route is well marked, and the route covers a relatively small area.
Click to Read More of my piece on Turquazz!