Turquazz: A Primer on Turkish Wine Grapes Part Two: White Grapes

Turquazz: A Primer on Turkish Wine Grapes Part Two: White Grapes

April 8, 2021ByAndrea Lemieux 1Articles, Turkish Wine, White Wine

My second 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! And for me first piece, I begin where one should begin. At the beginning with the building blocks of wines, the grapes.

A Primer on Turkish Wine Grapes Part Two: White Grapes

In Part One of this Primer on Turkish Wine Grapes we looked at a brief history of winemaking in Turkey as well as the six most popular, native black grape varieties. In Part Two we will tackle the corresponding most popular, native white grape varieties used to make wine.

But first, let’s look at grape production in Turkey. Turkey covers the 5th largest vineyard area in the world with 448,000 hectares under vine. That’s more than the USA, Argentina, Portugal, South Africa, Australia etc. It ranks 6th in global grape production producing some 4.2 million tons of grapes annually.

So why isn’t Turkey more well-known as a wine producer? Well for one reason, a mere 3% of grapes is used for wine and rakı production. Where do the rest go? Table grapes and pekmez (grape molasses) take up a lot of grapes. In addition, Turkey is one of the largest exporters of raisins in the world.