Anatolia

Where wine began.

Nine thousand years of viticulture in a single landscape. The cradle of wine. And still, somehow, the world's best kept secret.

Snow capped Mount Ararat rising above an Anatolian vineyard, with a stone monastery in the middle distance.

I.Mount Ararat across the vineyards of Eastern Anatolia

Anatolia carries one of the longest wine stories on earth. Traces of fermented fruit have been found at Çatalhöyük, a 9,500 year old Neolithic settlement in South Central Anatolia. The proto Hittite peoples who followed cultivated vines between 3,000 and 4,000 BC, and the Hittites themselves left the first written records of viticulture in the region.

Surrounded by three seas (the Aegean, the Mediterranean, the Black) and crossed by mountain ranges that lift vineyards above a thousand metres, Türkiye is among the most varied wine landscapes in the world. Its soils run from volcanic tuff and basalt to limestone, clay, and alluvial river beds. Its grapes number in the thousands, most of them found nowhere else.

This is the land Two Moons works with directly, alongside the growers who tend it.

An Etymology
wiyana
The Hittite word for wine, spoken in Anatolia some four thousand years ago.
wiyana → wine · wein · vin · vinum
9,000
Years of viticulture
in the Anatolian cradle
1,200+
Indigenous grapes
35 to 40 in active use
1,300m
Vineyard altitude
among the world's highest
6th
Global grape producer
4th largest by area
Atlas

The varied face of Anatolia.

Low bush trained vines growing in pale sandy soil, photographed from above.
Bush vines, coastal Aegean
Sandy soils · goblet trained
Vines in the foreground with Cappadocia's tall fairy chimneys rising in the background.
Fairy chimneys, Cappadocia
Volcanic tuff · high plateau
A young vineyard in a sheltered canyon flanked by tall rocky cliffs.
Sheltered canyon, Central Anatolia
Volcanic walls · protected microclimate
Ancient stone terraced vineyards on red Mediterranean soil, with low vines climbing the slopes.

II.Ancient stone terraces, sculpted into the Mediterranean hillsides

Terroir

Four elements of place.

Mediterranean Climate

Sun rich, dry growing seasons softened by maritime breezes from three coastlines. Long warm days, cool nights, and an enviable balance of ripeness and acidity.

Mountain & Altitude

The Toros range and the volcanic slopes around Mount Erciyes lift vineyards to 900 to 1,300 metres. Cooler nights slow ripening, mineral rich soils sharpen the wines.

Microclimates

Differences in altitude, soil, and sea proximity create distinct expressions from region to region. The same grape, planted four hundred kilometres apart, tells a different story.

Diverse Soils

Volcanic tuff and basalt in Central Anatolia; limestone, clay, and alluvial beds along the coasts. Each contributes texture and tension to a wide spectrum of regional character.

The Work

The hands of the land.

Two women in traditional headscarves harvesting grapes by hand among the vines.
Harvest, Thrace
By hand · at dawn
A person in patterned clothing and rubber boots crushing red grapes by foot in a wooden trough.
Foot pressing, Cappadocia
A tradition older than steel
A father and small child walking hand in hand down a dirt path between rows of golden autumn vines.
Generations, Anatolia
Vines passed from hand to hand

Five regions, one country.

From the Thracian coast to the Tigris valley, five wine worlds within Türkiye.

Tour the Regions