As you know, we have a special Natural Wines Menu in addition to the WAYANA Wine Menu. With the recent update, Natural Wines Menu carries 15 white, 3 rosé and 18 red wines. Moreover, we have two more wines that we noticed late, we are adding them verbally for now. Let's take a quick look at the wines and producers in the WAYANA Natural Wines Menu.

 The wines in the menu carry the signatures of 17 producers. Among these, Gelveri has the largest share with seven wines. Let's immediately state that Gelveri only produces natural wines. The number of producers who prefer only natural wines, like Gelveri, is not actually small. You can also examine the portfolios of our producers in this aspect in the rest of the article. This time, we have listed our producers from largest to smallest according to the number of products in the menu.

We mentioned above that Gelveri has the most varieties on the menu with its seven wines; six white and one red. Gelveri is the leading winery in our country in terms of natural wines. The wines they make with endemic grapes harvested from vineyards established at the foothills of Hasan Mountain in Güzelyurt district of Aksaray also give life energy to the grapes of the region that are barely holding on to life. Gelveri is the only producer of Koku Üzüm, Kızıl Üzüm, Taş Üzüm, Keten Gömlek wines in Gelveri’s portfolio. The grapes of Hasan Dede and Kalecikkarası wines are also processed by other producers. The wine named Mayoğlu Terebinht is made from Keten Gömlek grapes; it uses turpentine, which has antioxidant properties. Mayoğlu was added in reference to the Greek family that pioneered the development of this wine. You can access a detailed summary about Gelveri from our previous blog post. Gelveri’yle ilgili geniş bir özete daha önceki blog yazımızdan ulaşabilirsiniz.

Pasaeli comes second in terms of varieties with its Kabuğunda series. Paşaeli, which is on the list with three white and one rosé natural wines, has a wide range of production. In addition to their work on natural wines, they have a large portfolio of products produced through conventional methods. Their parent company is also a distributor of imported wines.

Claros follows the list with three types of natural wines. Claros, which produces wines from its vineyards in the Menderes district of İzmir, grows only one type of grape: Merlot. In this respect, Claros Merlot wines are distinguished from each other by their late harvest (Late Harvest) and barrel application (Manto’s).

Next producer, Asarcık, who follows, is another new producer who has joined us with three wines. Based in Muğla province, who takes the name from where the winery is located, processes Öküzgözü and Boğazkere grapes in Aegean part. Actually Öküzgözü is the local grape of Elazığ province in the East and Boğazkere is the local grape of Diyarbakır in the South-east. But no one produces natural wine from these grapes. This is the difference of Asarcık. You can read our blog post to get to know Asarcık, who also produces conventional wines.

Mesashuna is our producer from Artvin. Mesashuna, who adopts the traditional Georgian production method of qvevri, wine in jars, has two well-known grapes of Georgia, Rkatsiteli (the r at the beginning is not pronounced) and Separavi wines. These are two of the few examples in our natural menu that are not made from our country's endemic grapes.

Kerasus is a young producer who joined us on this menu. This entrepreneurial team of two set out to find an answer to the question of why wine is not produced in the Black Sea Region. This enthusiastic producer is trying to bring every wine grape they find back to life. This year's total production consists of 60 bottles of two varieties distinguished by their application differences. It will be finished when it is sold out. You can find more detailed information about Kerasus in the blog post.

Founded by two female entrepreneurs in the Kalecik district of Ankara, Tafali makes wine only with Kalecik Karası grapes grown in their own vineyards, and is featured in the WAYANA Natural Wine Menu with rosé and red samples. Tafali only filters with coarse paper and does not produce conventional wine.

Neferiye, who produces in Muğla, is also a winemaker pursuing forgotten grapes. The WAYANA Natural Wine Menu includes a rosé wine made from Panık grapes and a red wine made from Kanlı Kara grapes. Both grapes are collected from vines that grow wrapped around oak and pine trees on the high plateaus of the region.

Selefkia from the Silifke district of Mersin is on our menu with two of its wines. They process Aküzüm and Patkara, two of the region's endemic grapes, into white and red wines, respectively. Selefkia also has other wines produced by conventional means in its portfolio. They label their wines made from grapes obtained from old vines as ‘Old Vine’.

Tomurcukbağ is one of the first names that comes to mind when Kalecik Karası is mentioned. The reason is that it is the vineyard of Sabit Ağaoğlu, whom we know for his efforts as a scientist in the recovery of the Kalecik Karası grape when it was on the verge of extinction due to phylloxera grape disease. The new harvest of the Trajan series and the ‘Gülcihanlı Yıllar’ menu, which is prepared as a multi-vintage and named after his deceased wife, are included in our menu.

Midin Wines have been a part of the WAYANA Wine Menu for a long time with the wines they produce in Şırnak. We are now also serving the white wines they make from the region’s endemic Bılbızeki and Karkuş grapes in the WAYANA Natural Wine Menu.

Kayra, the wine brand of Turkey’s giant in the beverage sector, MEY İçki, is on our list with Karkuş wine. Kayra has a very wide conventional wine portfolio. This wine made from the Karkuş grape from Southeastern Anatolia is the only natural example. We hope that this wine, which emerged as a project of the previous General Manager of the company, will continue as a series.

Chamlija has a wide range in the WAYANA Wine Menu, but the only example named Orange Wine is Narince. We learned from Mustafa Çamlıca, the owner, that the team members who use underwater suits do the mixing process of the wine produced by open fermentation in concrete tanks.

502 Vineyards is a winery established by a young entrepreneur in Amasya. The wine made with Merzifon Karası grapes, which we have seen examples of in the region in recent years, is a part of our natural menu. 502 Vineyards also produces conventional wines.

Barbare produces wine from grapes grown in its vineyards in the Tekirdağ region. Barbare focuses on international grapes and only the Neutral wine is produced as a natural wine in its extensive wine portfolio.

7Bilgeler is a producer from Kuşadası, Aydın. There is a wide range of conventional wine production. The example in the WAYANA Natural Wine Menu is made with Karasakız grapes collected from old vineyards. We hear that the project, which started as an experiment, will continue.

Another producer from Avşa Island, Büyülübağ, has been a part of the WAYANA Wine Menu from the beginning with his conventional wines. The natural wine they make from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes is their only example in this category. In the WAYANA 202 tasting at the beginning of 2025, we will examine the two wines that Büyülübağ processes from the same grape; conventional way and natural way.

Our last producer with a single wine on the menu is Canavar Wines, brought to life by a young couple. The entrepreneurs, who are new to winemaking, are on the WAYANA Wine Menu with the wine they make from Karasakız grapes obtained from their own old vines. We are eagerly waiting to see in which direction Canavar will develop and what new things it will bring us.