The interview was by Başak Ateş, the photographs by Necla İlgar. The occasion was the first Sommelier’s Table held in Ankara. The paper introduced me as “Turkey’s first internationally certified wine expert”; what I put forward that day was not a title but the country’s potential.
Turkey is among the top five countries in the world by vineyard area. Anatolia has seven thousand years of wine history; under the Ottomans production was substantial and wine was exported to Europe. Today that can mean both export and tourism income. The arithmetic is simple: you grow the grape for one lira and sell the wine for ten. That is where the value is.
For Ankara I dwelt on Kalecik Karası in particular. It is one of the region’s most valuable products and, having come close to disappearing, it was revived through a project run by Ankara University with a wine producer. In the nineties its popularity was handled badly and the market then turned to harder wines. Kalecik Karası is a value worth defending.
Wine has to be thought about together with its region: food cultures and grapes grow up together. Beside the spiced table of Diyarbakır stands Boğazkere; in Elazığ, Öküzgözü. Follow the region and the wine matches the dish by itself, because the two grew in the same place.
I also told them how I got here. After the French lycée I studied communication and marketing in France, and the curiosity began while visiting Europe’s major wine regions. Back in Turkey I worked as a product manager in a French patisserie group, then, through the French Chamber of Commerce, joined Turkey’s largest wine importer. That is where I caught the virus and began to study: I took the WSET Advanced certificate with distinction, and in the same year became the first woman to compete in the Turkish Sommelier Competition, where I came second. In 2010 I represented Turkey at the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs International Young Sommeliers Competition in Spain and finished fourth of twelve. I was the first person in Turkey to earn the Court of Master Sommeliers Certified Sommelier qualification, and I founded Vinipedia in June 2011.
They also asked why I run the Sommelier’s Table. The answer is simple: I do it first of all because I enjoy it. We wanted to build an evening like a chef’s table but with a sommelier; the first dinner was in November, in Istanbul. The wines I choose accompany the menu the chef has built with care, and at each course I say a few words about the dish and the wine. We wanted the table small enough for everyone to talk to each other; the point is not a commercial meeting but a good evening.