Turkey’s Women in Wine: An Interview with Tina Lino
Last year, one of my most popular posts was an interview with Uçmakdere winemaker Işıl Bulutsuz. A number of people asked for more interviews. One of my goals this year is to do just that. I am getting a bit of a late start since it’s already April! It did take me a while to figure out video editing (which as you’ll see is still very much a work in progress). Anyway, I’m finally able to post my first interview.
Tina Lino
While she’s not Turkish, I decided to start with Tina Lino, who, unlike many of the foreign winemakers and consultants working with wineries here, actually lives here. And, I’d recently managed to badger Tina into joining a panel about Turkish grapes hosted by Turquazz so I thought she might be amenable to this!
Tina is both a viticulturist and oenologist who holds a PhD in viticulture. In 2013, she left Italy for Turkey to work at Ankara-based winery Vinkara. After three years there, she moved to the Aegean coast to make wine at Buradan and co-found a viticulture and winemaking consulting firm, called Vine Projects.
The Interview
I’ve known Tina for a few years now, but am not sure I ever asked her how she got started in the wine world. So, that is where we begin.
I’ve ranted a few times here about how much I dislike “natural” wine. It’s not that I do not like the wine that people refer to as “natural wine” (well not all of it anyway) but the whole terminology around it as well as the sometimes self-righteous attitudes of those who push it. Tina comes at it from a different angle, preferring low impact viticulture and winemaking.
Then we cut a way a little because we both started ranting a little about how sulfides get a bad rap and how regular foods you buy at the grocery store have higher levels then well-made wine does. Tina explained how she uses sulfides and at what levels.
Next Tina and I talk about her wine “ah ha” moment and she reveals why she warned me that she’s the weirdest oenologist I’ll ever meet!
I had never heard of a viticulture PhD before I met Tina. Apparently it’s all about learning to think like a plant!
What does one do after finishing a PhD in thinking like a vine?
As I mentioned above, Tina first came to Turkey to work at Vinkara. That doesn’t seem the normal trajectory for an Italian winemaker so I had to ask. And Sherlock makes a cameo!
Turkey is home to a huge variety of grapes, both native and international, and I wanted to know if there was anything in particular that was exciting Tina these days.
She shared a little spoiler alert with me about a grape she’s hopefully going to start working with. A native grape, it’s one that appears in Wine Grapes but hardly ever on any labels. Those who have heard of often dismiss it as being low-quality and unimportant. Tina thinks it has potential. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a few years before we’ll find out!
We next turned our attention to her consulting firm Vine Projects and talk local v international grapes.
I asked Tina if there were any particular style of wine she was interested in making. I meant more, did she want to make sparkling wine etc. But Tina answered a much more interesting question about learning how to find a Turkish wine style.
And of course the question I always hate having to answer…I asked.
Another new thing I learned about Tina is that she’s from Sicily. I’ve asked a number of women in the wine industry here about what it’s like being a woman in wine in Turkey and I was really curious about Tina’s answer given where she started.
Tina’s wines
If you’re curious about Tina’s wines, you can find the Buradan Şirin rosé and Fidan reds are available at Mensis Mahzen and Grape Wine Boutique among other places. You can even find them in the US where they’re imported by House of Burgundy! You can read some of my reviews of the Buradan wines here.
She also consulted with Kuzeybağ when the winery decided to make a 100% Kösetevek.
Banner photo credit: Emma Başer Rose