Along Turkey’s scenic and serene Aegean coast, chefs, winemakers, and food producers are reviving old flavors and cultivating new tastes. Less than an hour’s drive from İzmir, small vineyards have banded together to form the Urla Wine Route, and new grassroots lodgings for tourists are making the peninsula more accessible.
The strong gusts that blow steadily off the sea around the İzmir Peninsula in western Turkey have made Alaçatı, the area’s ritziest resort town, a hotspot for windsurfers from around the world. However, in the nearby agricultural fields of Urla, the winds are nurturing another industry altogether: wine.
‘We plant our vines in the direction of the wind. It’s beneficial for the grapes because it dries up humidity and makes them less vulnerable to fungal diseases,’ explains winemaker Bilge Bengisu Öğünlü over a glass of her deep ruby-colored Cabernet Sauvignon. Bilge runs Urlice Vineyards, one of a growing number of boutique winemakers in this bucolic rural region, its rolling hills still largely covered with olive trees.
Izmir’s Winemaking History
Bilge and her husband, Reha, started producing wine commercially in 2006, making them pioneers among the new wave of Urla vintners. The İzmir area’s oenological history, however, is longstanding, spanning around 4000 years. ‘There are stories about Roman emperors being jealous of the quality of wine coming from this area and blocking imports,’ Bilge shares, sitting in the rustic stone building that serves as the winery’s tasting room and restaurant.
The oldest winemaking artifacts found in the İzmir area—storage jugs, crushing stones, and grape seeds—dating back to before 1700 BC, have been uncovered at a Bronze Age archaeological dig 50km from Urla, known as Bağlararası, which translates as ‘between the vineyards’. Today, this site lies hidden in the backstreets of the resort town of Çeşme.
Unfortunately, the region’s wine industry faced challenges in the early 1900s due to parasites and political changes. Consequently, the phylloxera bug that devastated the French wine industry in the mid-1850s arrived in the area, damaging the region’s vineyards. The 1923 population exchanges tied to the end of World War I also altered İzmir’s demographics drastically.
‘The Greeks who were residing here and understood how to tend to the vines were shipped to Greece,’ Bilge notes. Despite this, charming traditional Greek stone houses are still prevalent along with Greek culinary traditions that remain a significant part of the coastal region’s heritage.
Urla’s Food Traditions
‘Our cuisine here is very mixed. This, for example, is an old dish from Crete, a 200-year-old recipe,’ Nurcan Hanım, a member of a local women’s cooperative in Çeşme, explains as she presents a sample of cağla badem arapsaçı bakla (green beans with unripe almond and wild fennel), topped with yogurt, fresh garlic, and red-pepper flakes.
Another traditional flavor of the Greek Aegean is mastiha, or mastic (damla sakızı in Turkish), a piny tree resin. On its own, it’s an acquired taste, but locals still queue at the tiny Rumeli Pastanesi to purchase mastic-infused treats. This old-fashioned pastry shop, in business since 1945, is especially known for its mastic-flavored ice cream.
Most mastic comes from the Greek island of Chios, located just 7km off the coast of Çeşme and a popular day trip from Turkey. However, local officials are trying to revive mastic production as part of efforts to establish the area as a gastronomic tourism destination. Mastic trees have been planted in Çiftlikköy, a village near Çeşme, as well as on the outskirts of Alaçatı.
Going Wild for Plants
The region’s wild greens—collectively known in Turkish as ‘ot’—are celebrated each spring at the popular Alaçatı Ot Festivali. People from around the region flock to Alaçatı’s small town center to attend cooking demonstrations, participate in herb-gathering excursions in the surrounding hills, and sample greens-inspired offerings from local home cooks—from thyme honey to lavender-flower paste and nettle bread to spinach cake.
These local herbs and greens, traditionally harvested on a subsistence basis, have gained significant popularity, prompting concerns regarding overharvesting. As a result, Alaçatı now has a demonstration garden behind its municipal building where neat rows of local herbs are cultivated: dandelion, golden thistle, wild fennel, chicory, sea beets, mallow, and sorrel, among many others. Here, horticulturists aim to determine which ot can be cultivated in gardens to alleviate pressure on wild populations.
Year-round, dishes of cooked wild greens bathed in olive oil are prominent on the menus of the numerous small restaurants tucked away in Alaçatı’s winding cobblestone streets, many set in restored stone houses that are picturesque. Traditionally paired with rakı, an anise-flavored spirit similar to Greek ouzo, these meze dishes also complement the acidic white wines of the region remarkably well.
Creating the Urla Wine Route
Most wines produced at Urlice and other wineries in the Urla region are made from international grape varieties; however, many vintners are also reintroducing forgotten endemic varieties. Bornova misketi, a white wine with sweet, citrusy tones, is one of the favorites among local winemakers, including Serpil Şener of USCA, whose small production line also features a Shiraz blended with the local Foça karesi grape.
‘Foça karesi is an ancient grape whose history can be traced back almost 2,600 years,’ states Serpil. ‘It traveled west with Greek merchants and is believed to be the ancestor of grapes that have a similar genetic profile in France’s Rhône Valley.’ While the Foça karesi vines dwindled after the 1920s, recent decades have seen a concerted effort to revive this aromatic, fruity varietal.
Serpil, who graduated with a law degree in İzmir, first visited the Urla area intending to inspect a plot of land involved in a lawsuit. ‘Looking out at the olive trees and vineyards, and that view over the sea, significantly changed my life,’ she reveals. Three years later, she purchased the vineyard that became USCA.
The small production runs of family-owned wineries, like Urlice and USCA, have made it challenging for them to achieve broad distribution. Factors such as high taxes on alcohol, strict limitations on advertising, an underdeveloped domestic wine-drinking culture, and some rocky years for the country’s tourism industry compound the difficulties facing these boutique vintners.
As a solution, Urla’s wineries have focused on tourism. In 2016, Urlice, USCA, and five others collaborated to establish the Urla Bağ Yolu (Urla Wine Route), complementing almost 20 different Zeytin Rotası (Olive Paths) created by İzmir municipality to promote driving, cycling, and hiking tours through the scenic olive-growing regions. While the infrastructure for tourists in Urla remains limited compared to other renowned gastronomic destinations worldwide, the area’s potential is evident.
Where to Stay
Travelers will find that navigating Urla without a car or bike can be challenging, and options for accommodations amid the vineyards are still developing. One option is Urla Bağevi, which is so new that wine production has yet to commence. Most visitors choose to stay in Alaçatı, although it becomes quite busy during the summer season. A few winery tour companies offer day trips around the Urla Wine Route with English-speaking guides, including the İzmir-based company Çittur.
Peace seekers may consider staying in Seferihisar, located 20km south of Urla, which is beginning to develop small-scale tourism by opening rural homes to visitors. Guests can try their hand at cheesemaking, winemaking, or olive harvesting. Consequently, the belediye (municipality) office serves as the best contact for information about available options.
