In October, wineries across Turkey completed the last of their harvests and are now hard at work crafting their new wines. Despite how new the concept of Turkish wine is to many people, this was hardly the first harvest to occur in the country. Turkish wine history stretches back thousands of years to before recorded history. Some might even argue that eastern Turkey, also known as Anatolia, is the birthplace of wine. It is impossible to condense thousands of years of history into a few paragraphs! However, in order to provide a Turkish Wine History 101, we’ll try.
Turkish and international scholars and wine experts such as B. Güler, Lucienne Thys-Şenocak, Dr. Patrick McGovern, and Dr. José Vouillamoz agree that winemaking originated in eastern Anatolia. Indeed, in the late winter of 2017, Dr. Patrick McGovern, the leading man in the hunt for the origins of wine, demonstrated that the early Neolithic period was a time of grape fermentation experimentation and that the earliest winemaking evidence can be traced to this moment from the eastern Taurus Mountains to the Caucuses. This new narrative has shed light on a surprising geography where wine – both in production and consumption – flourished: Anatolia. In fact, we can go further and show an unbroken timeline of wine production from 7000 BC to today. Wine in Anatolia has had a far longer legacy of being enjoyed than of being rejected. (Mcgovern, Of Vines and Wines)
Following the Neolithic population, a parade of peoples and cultures came through Anatolia, adding their own unique stamp to the country’s wine. The Assyrians ruled much of Anatolia from 2500 to 609 BC and gave the world some of (if not the!) first recorded laws regarding viticulture. Concurrently, from 1700 to 1200 BC, the Hittite Empire encompassed most of Anatolia, the Levant, and Upper Mesopotamia. The significance of their role in the history of Anatolian lands and wine can still be seen today; small Hittite iconography, signs, and designs dot the Turkish countryside. The Hittites set the tone for wine consumption (probably for the rest of the world). Wine was an essential part of their everyday and spiritual activities and events, as well as industry and economy. The adage: “eat, drink, and be merry” owes its origins to the Hittites and is attributed to the great Hittite King Suppiluliuma. The full quotation is actually “Eat, drink, and be merry, for everything else is not worth that” and it is inscribed on his tomb.
After the fall of the Hittite Empire, Phrygians (1200 - 600 BC) took up the mantle as the major wine producers of Anatolia. Established by King Gordias, he ruled a people famous for their wine. So much so in fact, that the Phrygian scion King Midas (yes, that Midas!!) is said to have associated himself with Silenus, other satyrs, and with Dionysus - who is said to have granted him the legendary "golden touch."
Perhaps more famous were the Hellenic and Roman empires that came through Turkey from 1100 BC to 395 AD. While they did not invent wine, the ancient Romans as well as the ancient Greeks did technologically and industrially push the winemaking process forward. These ancient civilizations made wine production closer to what it looks like today. Peoples in both empires consumed wine both for spiritual and physical well-being, wine having been considered safer and more potable than water. The Ancient Greeks believed the most sophisticated way to drink wine was mixed with water – at less than half wine to water ratio. Romans also mixed their wine with water as well as a slew of other things including pine pitch, honey, and spices. However, it was they who slowly started drinking their wine neat.
For the Byzantines (395 - 1453 AD), wine was both a daily necessity as well as a luxury. It played a significant role in dietary and humoral theory. If one wanted to balance their ‘constitution’ or ‘temperament’, wine - and different kinds - would have often been the answer.
It is a misconception that wine was banned under the Ottoman Empire (1493-1922 AD). Wine and Islam do indeed have a complicated relationship, far too much to cover for a short introductory piece such as this! Suffice it to say that, with nuanced rules governing both production and consumption, wine always flowed throughout the empire during its long reign, with only intermittent breaks during times of insecurity, i.e. as a new sultan tried to establish credibility and popular support, alcohol would often be prohibited and taverns closed, even to non-Muslim demographics. However, they never stayed shut for too long, as there was often an ebb and flow of sultanic piety between successive regimes. A great example is the reign of Sultan Süleyman the "Magnificent”, one of the more pious Ottoman sultans. Süleyman was followed by his son, Selim II, who was also known (not without controversy) as Selim the "Drunkard" and was said to have died from a head injury suffered after an intoxicated slip and fall on the wet marble floors of the palace hammam!
But even the pious Süleyman saw a certain advantage in production of wine. During the 16th century Ottoman Crimea was a predominantly Christian province. Surviving tax-registers show that by that time, the Ottomans had already invented terminology to denote taxes for several specific activities involving viticulture: a sign of both, sophistication and the ability to see a potential profitable opportunity. They settled the conflict of Islamic prohibition of alcohol by forming a lucrative business move: taxes. This also provided significant tax breaks for Muslim viticulturalists. Not only did this encourage investment by Muslim practitioners, but it also encouraged the conversion of local Christians to the Islamic faith. (Oleksander Halenko, “Wine Production, Marketing and Consumption in the Ottoman Crimea, 1520-1542,” Journal of Economic and Social History in the Orient, 47:4 (2004))
Similar to the Ottoman Empire, there is a (albeit less) popular misconception held with the Republic of Turkey (founded in 1923), that as a majority Muslim nation, alcohol and spirits such as wine, beer, and beyond are forbidden. This is far from the truth. Alcohol has been part of the Republic's culture and identity from its founding. One need look no further than Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dubbed the father of modern Turkey, who had his own label of beer, an Ankara-based vineyard, and was very outspoken about his love of rakı, a grape-based, aniseed-flavor spirit similar in taste to Greece’s ouzo or Lebanon’s arak. While subsequent governments have looked less keenly upon the production of wine and other alcohol, just as with their Ottoman predecessors, no modern Turkish regime has yet banned its production.
As you can see, the history of viticulture and wine production in Turkey is long, influenced by many cultures, and has not a few fascinating anecdotes. And this was only the quick overview! Stay tuned to future newsletters for more in-depth pieces about these various periods of history.
Andrea Lemieux is an international wine expert with particular expertise in Turkish Wine. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine, the world's only comprehensive English language book on Turkish wine, and she is the founder of The Quirky Cork blog which is dedicated largely to Turkish wine.
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