First Vineyard of the Year with Pamukkale Wines

One hundred percent local wine producer at the weekend Pamukkale Winesfor the first time of the year in the Güney district of Denizli as the guest of vintage I was invited for We were guests of the Tokat Family, the owner of Pamukkale Wines, with a group of 20 people consisting of travel bloggers, wine tasters and gourmets. Thank you again for their wonderful hosts.

If you are a wine lover like me, I think you should continue reading.

Native to Central Anatolia wine It has been produced and consumed in our country for centuries. It is said that the first producers were the Hittites. Grape wine is still produced in many regions in our country, and local winemakers are working hard to produce our local wines.

Pamukkale Wines

After a few years of Pamukkale Winery's existence (maybe even more), my friend said, “I bought a wine from Carrefour for 10TL, it tastes amazingly good, it's a perfect table wine. It would not be a lie if I said that I was informed by saying "You have to try it for sure". The wine in question was the Sava branded product of Pamukkale Wines. After that day, whenever I shopped at Carrefour, I started to throw a Sava in my bag.

Anyway, back to our topic, Pamukkale Wines.

Pamukkale Wines was established in 1962 as a family business in the Güney district of Denizli. Fevzi Tokat, the eldest brother of the Tokat Family, established his family business to produce 100.000 liters in order to evaluate the wine potential in his hometown. The Güney region, which is one of the most suitable regions in Turkey to grow wine grapes, also draws attention with its similar characteristics to the Napa Valley, which is famous for its wines.

The family, which initially sold in barrels like many small wine producers, changed things when one of the brothers, Yasin Tokat, graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Food and Fermentation Technology, and took responsibility for the production of the company. Yasin Bey is still at work, it is not possible to say that he is a very sociable and humorous person. This must be the common point of people dealing with wine… Just like other members of the Tokat Family…

Pamukkale winery, which is among the important producers of Turkey with its production of 5 million liters today, is also making great efforts to bring foreign grapes to the region and to develop viticulture in the Güney district. The family, which produces not only for the domestic market, but also abroad, has also won many awards in Europe. One of my favorite visions is their strategy to offer quality wine to Turkish people at an affordable price.

In different cities of Turkey, I witnessed that sometimes a person and sometimes a family changed the fate of that city (see Ormana Village). It is possible to say that the fate of the Güney district has also changed with the Tokat Family wine production investments.

Heading South for the Year's First Vintage!

A few weeks ago, Selda Tokat, a member of the Tokat Family in charge of sales and marketing, called me; “We have a vintage organization in Denizli, would you join?” she asked. When it comes to wine, I made a contract with Mrs. Selda to postpone my organization on the date of the invitation and go to the vintage.

We met early in the morning at Atatürk Airport to go to Denizli for the first vintage of the year. We set out with our team of 20 people consisting of bloggers and Instagrammers. First, we went right to our hotel in Pamukkale-Karahayıt and had our breakfast full of Denizli local delicacies. After having a rest at the Richmond Hotel, which is also our accommodation, we set out for the South to see the vineyards.

I had been to Denizli many times before, but I could not see Güney Waterfall due to the fact that the road is off the beaten track and far from the center of Denizli. The tea break we took at Güney Waterfall on the way to the South was the first surprise of the day for me. No, the first surprise of the day was the morning champagne we drank in the shuttle service on the way from Denizli Cardak Airport.

Although Güney Township is in the north of Denizli and even very close to the Uşak border, I do not know why it is called Güney. You can reach the South by a 1-hour journey from Denizli center. When we came to the South, of course, we immediately went to the Pamukkale Winery factory, where the production facilities are located.

First Yasin Tokat and then Fevzi Tokat from the third generation, who is currently responsible for production, talked to us at length about both the history of the factory and the entire wine production process. The wine tastings we do in the wine cellar and especially the red wine we drank from that last barrel make people proud because of the world-class work being done in Turkey.

After visiting the factory, it was time for the vineyards. Production in Pamukkale Wines was made with the "Chateau" method, that is, the grapes were taken from the vineyards close to the factory and as soon as they were picked from the vineyard, they came to the factory and entered the production process. From the vineyard to our table 😉

Visiting the vineyards was also enjoyable, almost every kind of grape you can think of is grown on the Southern plateau. Turkey's quality wine grape varieties (Kalecik Karası, Öküzgözü, Boğazkere, Narince from white varieties) and world-famous foreign grape varieties (black varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot; white varieties such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc) are grown in this region. The Tokat Family brought the vaccine or root of most of them here.

You may think that you are in Tuscany or Napa Valley while wandering around. However, in our country, it is possible to produce high quality wine grapes at least as much as those regions and turn them into wine. Of course, this requires a little courage, one of Fevzi Bey's…

In the evening, another surprise awaited us. A long banquet table in the vineyard house of the Tokat Family, a meal accompanied by fine wines all night long. It was really enjoyable to watch the sunset and taste the commendable wines while looking at the vineyards from the terrace of the vineyard house as far as the eye can see. Mrs. Selda warned us against the cold of the South, the weather was quite breezy, but none of us wanted to leave the vineyard house and return to the hotel. I would really like to take our sleeping bags and enjoy waking up on that terrace, who knows, maybe next time… I fell asleep with a goofy smile on my face when I left Güney late and returned to the hotel without getting enough of the vineyards and wines.

We spent our Sunday visiting the historical and touristic places in Denizli. We first visited Pamukkale, the ancient city of Hierapolis and travertines, and then the ancient city of Laodicea, whose excavations have accelerated in recent years and its importance has been understood. I will not detail these places as I will prepare a separate article for Denizli.

We had a great weekend with Pamukkale Wines. We ate, drank, got a lot of information about wines, saw Pamukkale again, witnessed how a warm family business made a great contribution to a district, we chatted a lot. What more could one ask for from a weekend trip 😉

Endless thanks to the whole Tokat family, especially Selda Tokat, for her smiling face and hosting, to Taflan Kandemir for the organization, and to all the participants who made it possible for us to have an enjoyable event.

If you want to see lots of photos about the event, you can check out the following tags on Instagram;
#cottonkalewines #pamukkaleharvest2016