That’s what makes Christmas dinner so easy to cater for. Wine from Turkey. Now that’s a different matter.

Neighbours like Greece produce wine, which suggests that wine production would be possible. They do grow an awful lot of grapes in Turkey. They are the 4th largest producer in the world. The ability to grow grapes is pretty much of a prerequisite for winemaking… but most of these grapes are varieties like Sultana, a seedless grape as well as being a method of drying, which while you can make wine from it tends to be better for the table.

So while they grow masses, only 2% get turned into wine.

Why is that? Politics. For a period of 500 years Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire and, being mostly Muslim, wine was banned.

Since the secular Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, wine has started to slowly return. It is a return too. When the local people here were called Mesopotamians some 6000 years ago, the South Eastern corner of this country was the birthplace of winemaking itself. It was the peoples from this region that spread many grape varieties now common in central Europe, while they conquered.

Looking at modern Turkey you will not be surprised to find that ‘modern’ grapes are being planted to please the palates of its burgeoning wine-loving tourist markets.