CANAVAR = MONSTER 

Persian: Cānāver noun A wild creature that lives in fairy tales and legends. It is derived from ‘CANI VAR’, which is formed by combining ‘can’ (life) and the suffix ‘aver’, becomes ‘It has a life’ which is also ‘alive’.

The vines in the vineyard are alive, like the yeast on the grape skin and the wine in the bottle. We, Duygu and Can; are the producers of Canavar Vineyards. Our wine story began with an old Karasakız vineyard in Kaz Mountains. Therefore, in order to tell our own story, we must first tell the story of the vineyard. 

In the 1980s, Karasakız grapes, which were encouraged to be planted in the region by the Tekel (Turkish Monopoly) Cognac Factory in Çanakkale, fell out of favor with the closure of Tekel in 2004. The closure of the factory left Karasakız vineyards in a difficult situation due to the sudden drop in grape prices. Due to the collapse of Karasakız prices, table wine producers flocked to the region to buy grapes and began to harvest the product at lower prices each season. At first, the vineyard farmers stopped taking care of their vineyards because the money they earned was not worth taking care of them; then they gradually started to root their vineyards and plant fruit trees in their place. Our wine journey started with one of these vineyards, a Karasakız vineyard that we celebrated its 37th anniversary this year, and the ecological life we established around it. 

In 2019, the potential of the vineyard started to interest us with a late-harvest dessert wine we made from our grapes in the vineyard for the first time. First, the misconceptions about grapes caught our eye. The wine which we expected to be low acidity, tannin-free and simple fruit profile, was the exact opposite. That wine made us think, ‘What else we know wrong?’ This motivation, fueled by Can’s interest in research and the culture of alcoholic beverages, Duygu’s interest in ecological agriculture and her desire to take part in production, led us on this path thanks to a number of obstacles and opportunities. As we prepare for our 6th harvest in 2024, we are very happy to be able to share with everyone what Karasakız has to offer in the harvests so far. 

As for our production philosophy, we adopt the philosophy of natural wine. While we produce products where the terroir of the wine stands out by making low-intervention production in both agriculture and the winemaking process, we prefer to make a production that respects nature. 

While explaining our philosophy, we have to start with the soil because wine is an agricultural product; its production starts in the vineyard. We do not use any poison in our vineyard, and even if it is within the scope of organic, we do not resort to a substance that we think harms the soil. Our priority is to increase the organic matter of our soil in a balanced way through natural means, to create a self-sufficient area without being dependent on the outside. We continue this in the land surrounding our vineyard. The most important issue for us is to produce cleanly with 600 olive trees and 750 Bayramiç Beyazı nectarine trees which has a registered geographical indication, in our land and our vegetable garden that we establish every year. Since our land is surrounded by forest on 2 sides, it greatly supports us in establishing an ecosystem. 

The second essential of natural wine is wild yeast fermentation. Since we take immaculate care of our vineyard, we trust the yeast on its skin. The environmental yeasts formed on the skin of the grape ferment the must and turn it into wine. One of the most important reasons for advocating wild yeast fermentation is the desire to allow the grape to be the wine it wants to be in our region and to understand its potential. At the last stage, we put it through a rough filtration; we bottle it without losing the liveliness of the wine and without reducing its volume. The production philosophy we adopt in all our wines is in this direction. 

After the experiments we have been conducting for a few years, we finally had the chance to release it to the market in the 2022 harvest. Our 2022 Karasakız gave life to Canavar Vineyard. We named it after Ampelo, the satyr and lover of Dionysus who gave life to the first vine from where he was buried. 

Our production in Canavar Vineyard, where Ampelo gives life, is not limited to Karasakız. We work with Sıdalan and Çakal, which are endemic grapes of the region. We hope that we will soon start sharing sweet wines, passitos and petnats in the upcoming harvests, 

Ampelo’nun can verdiği Canavar Bağları’nda üretimimiz sadece Karasakız ile sınırlı değil. Bölgenin endemik üzümlerinden Sıdalan ve Çakal ile çalışıyoruz. Umuyoruz yakında kendi alanımızda yaptığımız sek denemelerin yanı sıra tatlı şarapları, passitoları ve petnatları da önümüzdeki rekoltelerde paylaşmaya başlayacağız. Yeni üzümler, yeni ürünler, yeni canavarlar…