When the phone rings before WAYANA's opening time, whoever is there answers it. By coincidence, Ms. Zeynep's phone call came at the same time I was there. Those were the days when Forbes magazine announced WAYANA as the best wine bar in Istanbul. The voice on the phone was saying that she saw the news, congratulated us, that they also produced wine in the Muğla region and that she wanted to meet us. I invited her with great pleasure. This was our first contact with Asarcık Wines.
Asarcık is a producer that excites us with its vineyards in the region of the same name and the winery right next to it, between the Bozburun and Selimiye villages of Marmaris, which have become prominent with tourism in recent years. Every wine lover who is sensitive to the story of the wine until it reaches the glass will easily notice the effort that goes into every sip of Asarcık's wine.
The fact that the area surrounding Asarcık vineyards belong to (for now) State Treasury land and outside of construction areas has provided the opportunity for producers to practice organic viticulture. Organic viticulture is a difficult and challenging choice; There are aspects of viticulture that increase the burden, especially in the fight against pests. But the reward is that you can say with confidence that you have grapes that are not affected by artificial chemicals and present your certificate. Asarcık took this challenge.
It shouldn't be hard to understand the difficulty of viticulture and winemaking. First of all, there are administrative difficulties created by political understanding and bureaucracy. You must run a farming operation full of surprises created by both global and micro climate. There is a burden of marketing and sales that requires great effort, such as presenting and accepting your products to the wine community, where there are many people who make judgments and expertise. But despite all this, there are wine producers who do not hesitate to put their teeth into it and move on their way. Asarcık is an outstanding example of this group.
It is impossible not to mention another side of Asarcık. The elder generation of the family and the following generation have taken the risk of becoming an integral part of the vineyards and the winery. The newly arrived third generation has slowly begun to get acquainted with the aspects of this long journey that are aimed at them. Asarcık, which continues its activities knowing that wine is a marathon race, has three generations together. We wish them good luck in this long run.
As you know, one of WAYANA's distinctive product groups is endemic grape wines. Our second niche product group is our natural wines section. When we saw that there were examples of Asarcık wines that enriched both groups of the WAYANA Wine Menu, we gave priority to these wines.
The first of these wines is the red wine grape of the region called Muğla Karası. We will write about the story of this grape at length in another article. Red wine made from Muğla Karası is now a valuable part of our menu.
We made three additions from Asarcık to our natural wines menu. Öküzgözü and Boğazkere single variety natural wines, which we have been missing, and Öküzgözü-Boğazkere natural wine, which is a blend of these two grapes, are now a part of our menu. We welcome WAYANA guests, who value endemic and natural wines, to taste these new wines of Asarcık.
