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Hanging Out with Heraki

 

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My adventures with Turkish wine importer, Fine Turkish Wine, continue! Well at least the writing of them does, the adventures themselves ended in November. And it’s taking ever so much longer to write about these visits than it took to make them! After two days in Trakya (aka Thrace), visiting first Arcadia, then Arda and Gürbüz Winery we headed for the Aegean.

In this region, our first stop was Kuzubağ, and then we were on to Heraki. And buckle up, this post turned out much longer than I anticipated!

Heraki

Heraki Wines is, at its heart, a love story. First between its founders, then between them and Turkey.

Fulya Akıncı and José Hernández met in Bordeaux while studying oenology. Already devoted to wine, they fell in love and sustained their relationship across continents, refining their craft in Europe, South America, and China. In 2013, while working on opposite sides of the world, they chose a single place to build a life together. That place was Turkey.

For several years the two built their career in Turkey as consultants, working for a range of wineries in the Aegean and Central Anatolia with Fulya at Karnas and Sobran Bağları, and José at Vinolus, Hus, Yaban Kolektif, and Kayıbağ. However much they enjoyed the work, soon enough they wanted to make their own wine, to their own taste, with their own methods.

Founded in 2019, Heraki unites their names and their belief in the power of Turkey’s native grapes. The winery is small and hands-on, filled with tanks, barrels, and plastic eggs that reflect their experimental spirit.

The Vineyards

While Heraki’s winery is in Alaşehir, Manisa, their grapes come from near and far across the country. At the moment, Heraki owns no vineyards of its own. Part of its magic comes from the relationships they have built with vineyard owners. The bulk of these is scattered around the the municipality of Çal in inner Aegean district, Denizli.

We had the pleasure of visiting several of their vineyards with José. Located in the Çal villages of Çal, Kaplanlar, and Kabalar, plots sit at about 800 – 950 meters. These are all bush-trained, dry farmed plots that range from 35+ to 80 years old Sultaniye, Çal Karası, and Boğazkere. Driving around, in fact even the drive to meet up with José, was a revelation! Plot after plot after plot of old bush vines dot the hills, filling the municipality with more vineyards than even I expected. As we visited in the autumn, well after harvest, it was easy to spot the Boğazkere plots, with the grape’s distinctive deep red leaves, among the Sultaniye, Çal Karası, and whatever else might have been out there.

Working with these vineyards and their owners is part of Heraki’s strategy to add to the value of those landscapes and the life work of the vineyard growers. 

Akuarela Sultaniye, 2025

Fulya and José faced a lot of disbelief and teasing from wine friends and family when they relocated to Turkey. That they would go from making wine in some of the world’s most sought-after regions to working in Turkey with Sultaniye aka Sultana, aka Thompson Seedless, a grape many view as nothing more than a lowly table grape, was viewed as a huge joke. Not to be deterred by others’ opinions, they leaned into it with the label of their main series Akuarela which features the joker from a traditional deck of cards. 

During our visit, we tried a tank sample of the new 2025 vintage which blends together grapes from all three of the Çal villages where they have vineyards. The wine undergoes three to five days of skin contact to extract all the flavor and phenolics possible.

Very expressive with big notes of tropical, stone and citrus fruits, like the highly aromatic Buddha hand. Textured with electric acidity that really comes in on the back palate. 

I love this wine.

Delta V Sultaniye, 2023

Heraki creates two wines from Sultaniye, the above Akuarela, and the Delta V. I love the story behind this name. Delta V is the “unit of spacecraft mass that is needed to perform a maneuver such as launching from or landing on a planet or moon.” (Wikipedia). Or, as José said, the amount of force it takes to change people’s mind about Sultaniye. 

This is a blend of stainless steel with 60% raised in three to five year old barrels with extended aging on the fine lees. 

Baked fruit and vanilla, with threads of mineral and smoke. Rounded but with structure, great acidity – again felt more on the back palate – very long finish. Aromatic herbs, sage, marjoram, “deniz kenarinda” (seaside).

I also semi recently opened a bottle of an older vintage Delta V that I had around and WOW. The changes wrought after just a couple years of bottle aging was kind of insane. Get two of these and age one!

Rosé, 2024

The Heraki Rosé was a new addition to the winery’s line up from this vintage. Made in the ‘bleeding off’ (or salasso or saingee if you’re feeling fancy) method, it’s a blended of not just grapes, but Turkey’s wine regions. The blend includes Çal Karası, Karasakız, and Patkara, bringing together the Aegean and the Mediterranean. They ferment the grapes separately, partially in tanks, partially in glass demijohns, before blending.

This rosé has a pleasingly medicinal tone filled out by bitter orange, red plum, and geranium. Structured, excellent acidity, dry, No one could mistake this for an insipid “pink” wine. 

Akuarela Karasakız, 2024

We next came to my favorite of the their red wines: the Heraki Akuarela Karasakız. I love this grape. I learned something fascinating (wine geek alert!) about it in conversation with Fulya, José, and Işık (of Kastro Tireli-but more on that later). Karasakız, it seems, has a number of clones which explains why some Karasakız wines are practically see through (Yaban Kolektif Karasakız, Canavar Ampelo) and others are quite dark (Suvla Karasakız, Pasaeli 6\N). Generally, it has very compact bunches but these darker wines come from bunches that are looser with smaller grapes.

Additionally, the grapes from Bayramiç were previously used in brandy production. The company that bought the grapes “encouraged” farmers to plant specific clones that were lower in body and alcohol potential but higher in acidity, i.e. better for distillation. There’s also a difference in soils and how that affects the grapes. Soils in Bayramiç tend to be sandy, but transition to more gravelly granite the higher one goes in the Kaz Dağları (Kaz Mountains or Mount Ida) where many of these old bush vineyards are. 

• Sandy soils = more elegant, aromatic wines with lower tannin
• Gravel = bigger body, higher alcohol, deeper color

Heraki’s Karasakız clone is definitely of the paler variety. It’s one of those you can’t really believe it’s a red wine wines. It is, however, pale in color only! Big pink pepper notes, red fruits, dried herbs, slightly tannic, savory, bright acidity, long finish. I love this wine. 

We had an interesting discussion about Karasakız versus Çal Karası. The winemakers’ take was that initially people prefer the Karasakız because it’s such a surprise when you taste it. It’s all in your face and you can’t believe those big flavors out of such a pale wine. BUT that wine professionals gravitate towards Çal Karası in the end as it has more layers and depth.

I don’t care if it marks me as a dilettante or not. I will always prefer Karasakız.

Akuarela Çal Karası, 2024

And with that, we transition to their Çal Karası! My intense love for Karasakız doesn’t mean I don’t also really like Çal Karası. In fact, I wrote a whole piece about how Çal Karası is my favorite grape. 

Çal Karası’s nose and palate change at different rates – which you can definitely see. It starts losing color and going brickish very fast while the nose and palate stay fresh. This rapid color change apparently has to do with the grape having short anthocyanins, something not mentioned in any of my wine courses. I wonder if that’s true of other Turkish grapes? They not only seem to go brick quickly but a lot of the roses tend to have a more orange than pink tint. 

The Akuarela Çal Karası includes 20% whole bunch pressed grapes. It’s aged in the plastic eggs* Heraki introduced to Turkish winemaking with just a kiss of oak in the aging process. Red fruits, candy, and savory notes initially. On the palate, big acidity, lots of tension, and a surprising amount of tannin with juicy red plum, strawberry, and tomato leaf. 

*I’ve had a few people mildly freak out on me about the use of plastic eggs because they’re worried about microplastics (don’t we have enough to worry about already??) so I asked José about this. The eggs are German manufacture of the highest standards and there should be no plastics transfers, micro or otherwise, to the wine. He also pointed out that for people who have health concerns about this but drink “natural” wine, that the latter is far more dangerous, containing unknown micro organisms and potential toxins. 

Akuarela Boğazkere, 2022

We largely know Boğazkere from Diyarbakır, but there is a significant amount of plantings in the Aegean region as well, especially around Denizli. Heraki’s grapes come from just such vineyards around Çal. This seems to be a difficult grape to work with, based on the amount of clumsily made wines available that lend credence to the grapes “throat scratcher” name. No danger of that though with the talent behind Heraki!

Round, big acidity, lovely tannins, chocolatey almost – like savory chocolate under both cherries and sour cherries. So much more elegance and tension than you usually see from Boğazkere. 

Hold on to your hats because I’m going to suggest something that may be contentious…you could actually chill Heraki’s Akuarela Boğazkere.

Patkara, 2024

We’re taking a detour out of the Aegean to the heights of Turkey’s Mediterranean for this next wine: the Heraki Patkara. Currently one of the country’s emerging grapes, Patkara hails from the shell limestone of the Taurus Mountains. These old bush vines dot the mountains around the villages Çömelek and Karacaoğlan, at times at heights as much as 1400 meters.  

This wine is a winding journey. Deeply colored in the glass. A savory character with herbs and black-red fruits, olives, and licorice. On the palate, big, generous, silky with concentrated blackberry and black currant fruits, olive, brown spices, and freshly tilled earth.  

Sadly, Heraki was unable to get their hands on Patkara for 2025. Due to a rather large snafu, the grapes they would have bought all ended up sold in the Mersin market as fresh (table) grapes. Fingers crossed for a better outcome after the 2026 harvest!

Novakula, 2022 

The last wine reviewed but the first wine made. The Novakula is where Heraki began.

When Fulya and José began looking for vineyards, they found what were the oldest Boğazkere plantings in Denizli; bush-trained, dry farmed vines well over 35 years old. After locating the owner, they were horrified to learn he planned to rip them out to plant more lucrative Merlot. They convinced him to let them buy the grapes in 2019, creating their first wine. While he let them have the grapes that year, each subsequent year the owner threatened to rip them out. But they kept convincing him not to. Fulya and José developed a relationship not only with the owner but also with his sons, who are now all invested in Heraki’s wines. And there’s no more talk about Merlot!

 

We got to see this infamous vineyard. The vines, now 42 years old, sit in one of the higher parcels (about 900 meters) in the Kabalar village, in limestone soil.

The wine spent about 16 months in a combination of old, 300-liter French oak barrels and plastic fermentation eggs before being bottled with limited filtration and no fining. The resulting wine is as complex as Boğazkere should be, but with a rarely seen elegance and fresh acidity that supports the grape’s dense tannins. Pouring this wine means embarking on a journey as you discover a wealth of red and black fruits including raspberry, cherry, blueberry, and plum before plummeting to the depths of its savory-earthy side with woodsy tones of clove and cardamom, dried herbs, and black pepper, then finishing on a sweet vanilla note.

Visiting Heraki

Given how very busy Fulya and José are, it won’t come as a shock that Heraki is not really open to visitors. But! That doesn’t mean you can’t visit a winery and taste their wine!

Heraki is a member of Turkey’s newest wine route: the Lidya Antik Bağ Rotası. This new route includes a number of wineries from the inner Aegean including: Heraki, Sobran Bağları, Kastro Tireli, Nif Bağları, Kavaklidere Pendore Bağları, and Selendi. For tastings, Heraki partners with Sobran Bağları which you can visit to taste both Sobran’s wines (made by Fulya!) as well as Heraki’s.

If you’re planning a visit, keep in mind that it is always wise to make an appointment with wineries in Turkey. 

Getting There

Sobran is give or take a two-hour drive from Izmir, the nearest (at least nearest regularly serviced) airport. Your best option is to take an early morning flight from Istanbul and rent a car at the Izmir airport. 

Staying

The Lidya Antik Bağ Rotası covers a fairly wide area across Kemalpaşa, Manisa, Akhisar, Alaşehir, Uşak, Kula, and Aydın. Booking a hotel will depend entirely on how you organize your tour and to which city you’re closest at the end of the day. Luckily, there are plenty of hotels you can book, even sometimes at the last minute if your travel plans are loose. 

Things to Do Around

Assuming you like both wine and what a friend of mine succinctly calls “old stuff” then there’s a fair amount to do around this wine route! Of course there are the seven wineries to visit! This region also holds any number of ruins/archaeological sites and museums.

• In Akhisar – Kula – Uşak: Selendi Vineyards, Akhisar Historical Bazaar, Akhisar Museum and Thyateira Hill Tombs, Kastro Tireli Vineyards, Yanık Ülke Vineyards (not a route member but they have a hotel!), Divlit Volcano, Kula Geopark, Kula Fairy Chimneys, Historical Kula Houses, and the Uşak Museum.
• In Kemalpaşa – Manisa – Alaşehir: Nif Vineyards, Sardes Ancient City, St. John Church, Kavaklidere Pendore Vineyards, Sobran, and the Philadelphia Ancient Theatre and Temple excavation site.

Through the love Fulya and José have for each other, for Turkey, and for the country’s native grapes, they have elevated wine culture in Turkey, old vineyards, and the entire wine industry. Don’t forget to check out my previous posts about Heraki’s wines. And, if you want to explore Turkish wine more deeply, you can always get a copy of the second edition of my book: The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine!