Aegean
Mediterranean, continental inland
Turkey's largest wine region, running from the İzmir coast inland to Manisa and Denizli, and home of Bornova Misketi, Çalkarası and many of the country's oldest wineries.
Overview
About Aegean
The Aegean provinces of İzmir, Manisa and Denizli make roughly half of Turkey's wine, and vines have been grown here since antiquity. Sevilen and Yazgan (both founded in the 1940s in İzmir) and Pamukkale in Denizli are among the long-established names.
Local grapes include Bornova Misketi, a fragrant Muscat of the İzmir area, and Çalkarası from Denizli, alongside international varieties. A number of smaller producers, such as Paşaeli, work with almost-lost local varieties. Wines from the warmer Aegean tend to be softer and lower in acidity than those from the high plateau.
Aegean is marked on the map.
Turkey
Shaded: Izmir, Manisa, Denizli. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Mediterranean, continental inland
Maritime Mediterranean on the coast, with average temperatures of 16 to 19 degrees Celsius, and cooler and more continental inland at 12 to 16 degrees. Annual rainfall averages around 550 mm, and vineyards range from near sea level to around 900 metres.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Clay loam and calcareous chalk and limestone.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
The Aegean is an informal region name, with no appellation rules about grapes, yields or methods.
Aegean on the label
Shows origin only. Producers add the province, such as İzmir, Manisa or Denizli.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.