Urla winery reviving centuries-old tradition

The winery of Urla ?arapç?l?k has resurrected the Karaburun Peninsula's long history of making wines that are sought far and wideThese are not the best times to be in the wine business in Turkey as the sector has been grappling with huge taxes and marketing obstacles. But those difficulties do not seem to have discouraged Can Ortaba? and his dedication for wine making.

"The Ionians planted [in 1000 B.C.], the Lydians worked the soil [in 550 B.C.], the Persians fertilized [in 350 B.C.], the Romans irrigated it [in 150 B.C.], the Byzantines pruned [in 750 A.D.], the Ottomans kept it alive [in A.D. 1650], and we turned it into a passion [in A.D. 2010];" according to the brochure of Urla ?arapç?l?k.
Note, however, that nothing is mentioned between the Ottomans and the present. 

The Karaburun peninsula, located at the Western end of the Gulf of ?zmir and mainly populated by the Greeks before World War I used to be an important center for wine production. 

"According to one estimate, 72 million liters of wine was produced before World War I. Last year Turkey's total production of wine remained at 64 million. Can you imagine just the Karaburun peninsula alone was producing more than the current total production in Turkey? And that is only a few generations ago, before the population exchange," Ortaba? told a group that recently visited his winery. 

A fourth-generation member of a family that migrated from Crete, Ortaba? was referring to the population exchange that took place at the end of World War I between Turkey and Greece.

From the seventh century B.C. onward, the most desired wine in a wide area from the Western Mediterranean to the Black Sea was made and shipped in unique clay vessels from the Ionian...