Turkish wine

Turkish wine is wine made in the transcontinental Eurasian country Turkey. The Caucasus region, where Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran are located, played a pivotal role in the early history of wine and is likely to have been one of the earliest wine-producing regions of the world.^[1]

Ampelographers estimate that Turkey is home to between 600 and 1200 indigenous varieties of Vitis vinifera (the European grapevine), though less than 60 of these are grown commercially. With over 8,120 square kilometres (2,010,000 acres) planted under vine, Turkey is the world's fourth-leading producer of grapes for wine production.^[2]

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's first president, established the country's first commercial winery in 1925. According to the OIV, the total wine production in 2005 was 28,700,000 litres.^[3] In the first half of 2009, wine consumption in Turkey reached 20,906,762 litres. ^{[citation needed]}