History of Wine in Cappadocia

This is a story about two travelers which reached perfection at the course of the time and which continue to travel to change everyday, Cappadocia changes its shape and wine changes its taste. They are both alive like human being , the only thing which determines life is change. Every creature is born and differs through the time. Fire was the beginning of everything for Cappadocia . It was the volcanic eruptions of the mountains around the region and for wine it is the sun which gives all the taste to it together with the volcanic soil of the region rich with different flavors. Then came the air, with the changes in temperature and with the wind which blew from different directions through the time. The wind and the frost eroded the soft layer of the soil and formed small valleys in Cappadocia. All these sharp changes in the temperature and the wind of Cappadocia give us very resistant ,strong and delicious wine grapes. Water played another crucial role in the formation of Cappadocia. The rain, the flood and the rivers carved the volcanic plateau to give the way to the very strange geological formations. Without water we can not talk about crop, neither about grapevine. The co-existence of wine and Cappadocia is a very long story. The rough continental climate of the region is softened by the rivers like Melendiz and Damsa at the South and Kizilirmak ( Red River ) at the North the latter being also the longest river of Turkey with a length of 1151km. Kizilirmak takes its source from the mountains around the city of Sivas at about 300 km North-east of Cappadocia. Its ancient name is “Halys”. Then it curves down to the South towards Cappadocia to pass through the localities like Avanos and Gulsehir and then continues to the North-east to Kirikkale to create the ideal climate for growing the white grapes of Hasandede and to “Kalecik” to give one of most prestigious black grapes of Turkey, “Kalecik Karasi”. In Cappadocia the combination of the volcanic soil which is very rich in minerals with the microclimate created by the river has given a very special taste to the grapes grown through the ages. History of wine in Cappadocia goes back to Hittite Empire period which ruled in Anatolia and in a large portion of Middle East between 1650 -1200 B.C. At that period Anatolia was also called “Wiyanawanda” - land of wine. A lot of artifacts and reliefs depicting rituals of Hittites have been discovered during the Archaeological excavations conducted in the sites like Hattusa- the capital of Hittite Empire which we include in Greater Cappadocia, in Alacahoyuk again in the same region, also in Kayseri or Cesarea , the old capital of the Kingdom of Cappadocia. These objects are exhibited today in local archaeological museums in Corum, in Kayseri and also in the museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara- the capital of Turkey. (The visit of these museums is included in most of our programs.) Although we do not have evidences about the continuation of viniculture in Cappadocia after the collapse of Hittite Kingdom in about 1200 B.C until the Roman Period, we are sure of the fact that early Christians who took refuge in Cappadocia during the persecutions considered wine as the blood of Jesus Christ and they continued to grow the wine grapes that they used in their religious rituals. In “Geographika” written by Strabo-the Geographer in 1st century we can read that a special mention was made especially to the wines of Eastern Cappadocia, Militene ( today’s Malaya) for their high quality. By 4th Century A.D St Basil of Cesarea taught the monastic style of life to the people in Cappadocia. Thus religious centers like Goreme, Zelve, Prokopi, Cavusin, Avanos appeared on the scene as large Christian communities which adopted the style of life in large families between 30-50 people. This fact too, provoked a sharp development and increase in the production of wine grape in the region. At this period not only wine but the grape and the grape leaf as well became considered sacred and local people depicted the grape motifs on the walls of the rock churches. In the region today we have a lot of churches called “church with grapes” some of the most famous of which are the churches with grape in Zelve valley, Red Valley near Ortahisar and in Cavusin. Many other rock dwellings and churches although not called with this name are decorated with the grapes and grape leafs. This high increase in the production of grapes reached its peak in 11th and 12th centuries when Christianity in Cappadocia lived its most prosperous period. Turks who started to settle in the region did not bring such a high threat to the production of wine unlike the Mongolians of Genghis Khan who raided Cappadocia in 13th Century and who devastated the vineyards as well as the villages and the cities. During the Mongolian invasions Muslim Turks and Christians defended their land together against Mongolians. Two different sects of Islam, the Mevelevi Order in Konya (so called the order of whirling Dervishes) and Bektashi Order which is also considered as the basis of the Ottoman Philosophy in Hacibektas in Cappadocia did not prohibit the consumption of wine on the contrary especially Bektashi's placed wine in their religious ceremonies. Arabic Traveler Ibni Batuta who visited by Cappadocia in 14th century tells us about the vineyards of Cappadocia and European Traveler of 15th century Derschwamm writes about high quality wines produced by Greeks in the region. The viticulture kept its status together with the religious practices of Christianity all through the Ottoman Period from 15th to 19th centuries. We know that Ottomans did not intervene in the religious beliefs of Christians in Cappadocia and the production of wine did not become confronted with a restriction during this period. The sharp decrease in viniculture occurred in 1920’s with the foundation of Turkish Republic in 1923 after the independence war. Turkish and Greek governments made a treaty according to which the peoples would be exchanged between the two countries. Therefore between 1923 - 1925 the Greeks left Cappadocia to go to settle in Greece and they were replaced by Turks who came to Turkey from Thrace region in Greece where they had lived for long centuries. The replacement of the Christians by Muslims caused an omitment in viticulture, although some of these new comers continued the tradition many of them destroyed the vineyards because of religious reasons and created wheat fields instead. From 1980’s on we can talk about a rebirth of viticulture in Cappadocia this time not because of religious reasons but because of Tourism. The fact that the flow of Tourists in Cappadocia starting with French because of the fact that the region was introduced to the world by a French priest - then Italians and Spanish. The request for wine from all these nationalities pushed the small scale producers in Cappadocia to increase their productions and then to make investments.