Istanbul Is For Oenophiles

Turkey’s biggest city has some outstanding spots for wine lovers.

- Jeff Jenssen and Mike DeSimone

VISITING ISTANBUL 25 years ago, oenophiles were more or less limited to a single wine available at restaurants: a red produced by Kavaklidere. Few servers knew what grape it was made from, or much else about the producer (one of Turkey’s leading wineries), but it did pair well with lamb.

But Turkey and the Tigris-Euphrates River valley have been home to grape cultivation and winemaking since the fifth century BCE. Indeed, the country is among the largest producers of grapes in the world, with about 30 of its indigenous varieties (plus familiar grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah) used to make wine. Still, the country’s roughly 150 producers face numerous challenges, including low domestic consumption and a 2013 law that prohibits advertising or marketing of wine or spirits. And yet today, there’s much to enjoy for the visiting wine lover—and not just at international hotels with fully stocked bars.