We had a conversation with Paşaeli’s two female winemakers.

My travel, first by a Monday morning flight on November 17th to Izmir, and then to the Ibn-i Melek Organized Industrial Zone in Tire district of Izmir, again took five hours door-to-door. Even if I had gone by car, the duration would probably have been the same, but honestly, going and returning on the same day did not seem very realistic. As a result, I met Işık Gülçubuk at the door of Paşaeli Winery at noon. Before we even started talking about Paşaeli, I mentioned my underlying intention to Işık and asked what she thought about having a conversation on “Being a Female Winemaker in Turkey” after we finish our study on Paşaeli. “Of course,” she said, with a sparkle in her eyes still continuing, “In fact, can we also include Tuğba?” Is there anything better than finding two winemakers when searching for one? “If Tuğba wants to join as well, that would be wonderful,” I said, and this article emerged from that conversation.

Since the article became quite long, we decided that dividing it into two parts would be more appropriate. The continuation of the article will be available again in the blog section of our website as Part 2.

THE BIRTH OF THE IDEA OF BECOMING A WINEMAKER

As you might guess, the first question of the conversation was: “How did you choose to become a winemaker and what was the process like?” The first answer belongs to Işık, the second to Tuğba.

• I studied Food Engineering at Ege University. My graduation thesis was on wine. (smiling) Apparently, you could write theses like that back then. Turkey was different. At our university, there used to be a small wine production facility — it’s closed now, it no longer exists. We actually carried out fermentations there and later evaluated the wines. When I look back at those wines today, I realize we were basically making vinegar, but at least we learned the process.Then I started working, but my work life is quite funny. My first job was at Fersan, whose main product is vinegar. I started there as an R&D specialist. Around that time, wine tastings by Yunus Emre Kocabaşoğlu had just begun in Izmir. One of my close friend’s father cut out a small piece from Cumhuriyet newspaper and handed it to me saying, “Wine tastings are starting in Izmir.” I’m telling this because none of these things exist anymore. He said, “Since you love this, and your thesis was on wine, maybe you’ll enjoy it.” I called immediately — they were starting in a month. I enrolled right away. And that’s when the real journey began.I always remember Yunus Emre Kocabaşoğlu with great respect. In the first two levels of his courses, there was a general introduction to wine: white, rosé, red, sweet wines, and sparkling wines. I tasted Moscato d’Asti for the first time there. I said, “I love this, I could drink it by the case.” I continued with the courses, but they weren’t cheap. I was working, and spending what I earned on the courses. I attended them for almost two years.In my mind, I kept saying, “I can work in this sector,” and I started applying for jobs in Istanbul. At that time, there was a competition in France called the Wine Women Award, which unfortunately is no longer held. It had two categories: amateur and professional. For the competition, I first sent a motivation letter and passed the first stage. Then they sent a list of very detailed questions. After I wrote my answers, I went over them with Yunus Emre Kocabaşoğlu. He gave some final touches and I submitted the response. They invited me to Paris as a finalist in the amateur category.That competition is what truly changed my life. Among the people I met there, some were studying for their master’s degrees. So I began researching French graduate programs. Through that research, I decided to study viticulture and oenology at Montpellier SupAgro. After that, everything moved very quickly. I went to France in February, and by the next September I was already starting the program.The Vinifera Master program had two stages. The first year was in Montpellier, and for the second year you could choose where to go. I went to Spain for my second year and completed my thesis there. My thesis was on lees in wine. (She looks at me and adds: “I explained it to you in detail below.”) Then I continued living abroad.I interned at Château Lafite. After that, I worked with a consultant in Spain — a small father-and-son company in the Zaragoza region that served about 15–20 wineries. Then I went to New Zealand and experienced a harvest there. Finally, I went to the United States and stayed in Napa Valley for nearly a year.
• Were these moves initiated fully by you?
• Yes, I applied for all of them myself. When you go to New Zealand, the season changes anyway. You can do two harvests in the same year. I worked at a large winery in New Zealand to see scale, and after that, I never wanted to work at large wineries again. Then I worked in Bordeaux, but Bordeaux is always known for red wine, I chose a part that is not only about reds. Let me add something else. When I first met the father-son consultants in Spain, I did not know Spanish, and Jorge’s father did not know English. Later, when I visited them again, I had learned Spanish. His father pulled me aside and said: “My girl, you have a good nose, and you do your job well. But there are many people like you here. In your country, people like you are very much needed. You should look to your own country.” His words had a deep impact on me. They always ask me, “Why did you come back?” I think we are doing very good things here and we can do much better. I returned because I saw the potential here.
• So Tuğba, how did you enter the sector?
• I studied chemistry at Çanakkale 18 Mart University. School ended but we didn’t know anything, so I said I should enter the pharmaceutical industry. And I thought studying business administration externally might be beneficial for me. I studied business, I studied hard for KPSS, and suddenly I found myself in the laboratory of Suvla. Until then, I had nothing to do with wine. For two years, I handled the analyses as the laboratory supervisor. There was a Turkish oenologist at Suvla. She studied in America, then returned, and we were working together. Her spouse was in Ankara, eventually she left, and she told me: “You will now do my job.” We worked together for a month, she transferred her duties to me, and I found myself in production. I worked in production for two years and then I left. Afterwards, I moved to the neighboring producer, Asmadan. I truly entered the core of the job there, in 2018. Asmadan had a very small capacity. Winters were very calm. This job is done all around the world, so I said I should go and see those places as well. I made applications but with the pandemic borders closed, so I could not go. After my application to Margaret River in 2022, we had an interview and it was positive. In January 2023, I flew to Australia. The facilities may look like space stations, but we work much much much more meticulously here. Seeing that reassured me inside, and then I returned to Turkey, meaning I stayed here. This year, in June 2025, I left Asmadan. I wanted to take a little vacation, I did just a bit, and then I found myself at Paşaeli. I have been here for three months, we made the wines together with Mrs. Işık, and today we tasted them with you.

((The article will continue in the second part.))