Turkey’s Vintners Under Siege as Bans Crush Winemakers

(Bloomberg) - Trade group Wines of Turkey is showing off the country’s top reds and whites at a packed tasting at VinExpo fair in Bordeaux this week while heavy-handed regulations are making it harder than ever for them to sell at home.

In Turkey, which boasts a 7,000-year wine history, seven wine regions, and 800 grape varieties, its more than 100 wineries face new curbs on domestic sales.

Ironically, this is happening just as its wines are getting better and better. Those made from indigenous grapes like okuzgozu and bogazkere are igniting international interest. With dozens of boutique producers established in the past decade, Turkey is experiencing a wine renaissance.

The recently-passed alcohol bill pushed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP, the Justice and Development party, was signed into law by President Abdullah Gul on June 10.

This latest effort to control where and when people drink was one trigger for the massive protests at Taksim Square.

“Wine producers are in shock,” Taner Ogutoglu, the director of Wines of Turkey, wrote in an e-mail. He’d delivered a letter on behalf of the producers to President Gul, hoping to persuade him to veto the bill. It didn’t work.