The origin of the competition fits in an anecdote. Ekrem Eşkinat, mayor of Süleymanpaşa, was having a glass with his friend Can Topsakal, owner of Barbare wines, when he floated the idea of a wine competition. The answer came straight back: “I know a crazy girl that can make it happen.”
Minutes later they had me on the phone. A month after that the competition was under way, with two Masters of Wine already secured as judges, Tim Atkin and Peter McCombie, soon joined by Master Sommelier Ronan Sayburn.
The fourth edition, in 2018, is held in Süleymanpaşa, in the province of Tekirdağ. The rule has not moved: every competing wine must be made entirely from grapes grown within the boundaries of Thrace.
That year the winners are two young women. Gülçin Akçay, winemaker at Saranta, enters six bottles and takes three golds and three silvers. Özge Kaymaz, of Kayra, wins four gold medals.
But it is a single bottle that holds the columnist’s attention: a Sémillon, a long-forgotten grape of the region, which she describes as the possible trigger of a change. That is where the headline comes from: the grape-scape of Thrace is shifting.
The jury has settled over the editions: Peter McCombie has judged all four, Andreas Larsson since the second. By coming back, the author writes, they have become experts on the region.