Plan a trip
A route through the vines
Pick a country and a style, and we'll sketch a few days through it — real sub-regions in a sensible order, with what to expect at each stop and when to go, drawn from everything already on the site.
Where to
Style preference
Your route
A focused 3-stop route through Turkey
The character of this trip
One of the oldest wine countries, newly worth the journey
Turkey is among the oldest homes of viticulture on earth and one of the newest wine destinations. A trip here is about grapes you will meet almost nowhere else — Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, Narince, Emir — and about landscapes as much as cellars: volcanic tuff, high plateau, river valley. Distances are long and the places very different from one another, so a route with a clear theme, like native grapes, rewards you most.
A focused route through what's currently documented
Turkey has 6 places mapped on Ampelos so far. The route below draws on the ones within reach of each other — enough for a short, honest route rather than a full itinerary — and will grow as more of the country is documented.
Stops
3
Total driving
~572 km
Behind the wheel
10h 24min
Worth setting aside
5–7 days
What to expect
Notable producers
- Diren — Based in Tokat, the province's own winery; it also sources grapes from Denizli, Malatya, Elazığ and Diyarbakır.
Best time to visit
Come for harvest, in mid-autumn (October), when the cellars are busiest — or earlier, in early summer (June), for a quieter, greener look at the vines.
~308 km · 5h 36min to the next stop
Moving from a Narince-led stop to a Emir-led one, the route changes grape as well as place: Tokat, then Cappadocia.
Notable producers
- Turasan — Founded in 1943; among the oldest wineries in Cappadocia, with a strong Emir.
- Kocabağ — Ürgüp; founded in 1972, and known for fermenting and ageing wine in tanks carved from tuff rock.
- Kavaklıdere — Has vineyards in Cappadocia as well as in the Aegean and around Ankara.
Best time to visit
Come for harvest, in mid-autumn (October), when the cellars are busiest — or earlier, in early summer (June), for a quieter, greener look at the vines.
~264 km · 4h 48min to the next stop
Cappadocia is Emir country; Kalecik is Kalecik Karası. The drive between them is a change of grape, and the glass changes with it.
What to expect
Notable producers
- Vinkara — Founded in Kalecik in 2003; about 60 per cent of its vineyard is Kalecik Karası.
- Kavaklıdere — An Ankara winery that helped to revive the grape's reputation.
Best time to visit
Come for harvest, in mid-autumn (October), when the cellars are busiest — or earlier, in early summer (June), for a quieter, greener look at the vines.