Feature: An Interview with Kelly Voelkel, Fine Turkish Wine’s New Sales Manager

As we mentioned in our plans for the future, we’re expanding our team this year and made our first (of hopefully many!) full-time hire. As a seasoned industry professional with many choices, Kelly Voelkel chose the proverbial "road less traveled" by signing on with Fine Turkish Wine. And we scored a coup by bringing him on board with our small but growing family! 

We first met Kelly about two years ago when he was managing Vinology here in Houston. Kelly was an enormous help, providing ‘dos and don’ts’ advice for setting up our business, and we stayed in touch. 

So, who is this guy we’re so excited about?

Kelly’s Wine Journey

Born and raised in Texas, Kelly attended the University of Texas and stayed in Austin, where his first encounter with wine, like so many of us, was with liter bottles of White Zin. However, thanks to a wine-loving aunt and uncle, in 2005, he began taking wine courses with  Zahir Walji. 

Despite those courses, it would be a 2006 move to San Francisco that really tipped him into a wine career. Three months after moving, the explosion of internet radio ended his job in (traditional) radio accounting. There he was, in one of the country’s most expensive cities, with no job, and no real prospects of one as he watched his industry get crushed. 

A roommate working in a restaurant helped get him a job as a maitre de. The restaurant had an experienced sommelier on staff who wanted to teach a weekly wine class. Kelly rallied his coworkers into going, thus starting his professional introduction to wine. With field trips to nearby Napa and Sonoma, he got to learn about wine in the heart of American wine country. 

The wine bar craze was getting off the ground when Kelly returned to Austin in 2008, with some 20 bars opening there between 2007 and 2008. He got a job at Taste, where the two couples running the bar taught him and his coworkers what amounted to the certified sommelier course. He stayed at Taste until it closed in 2010, when he eventually moved on to Vino Vino. 

At the time, Vino Vino was not just a wine bar, but a favorite hangout for industry professionals. There, he became acquainted with now well-known sommeliers, wine experts, and others while at the same time, expanded his knowledge of lesser appreciated wine regions like Greece and Portugal. 

Another career shift arrived in 2015. While still in wine, Kelly moved into sales, working for distributors until 2020 when he transitioned to working with Hudson Wine Brokers, an Australian import company working with wineries from all over the country. Despite the extreme challenges of COVID at the time, he succeeded in opening 11 states to the sales region! As an added benefit, he also got to learn a lot about Australian wine. 

Kelly then entered the Houston wine scene to manage Vinology - which is also when we met him. After a few years there, he moved on to Justin Winery in Paso Robles, CA. But now, he’s back in Houston, and we're so very excited to have him at Fine Turkish Wine!

Kelly’s Take on Turkish Wine

Not surprisingly, Kelly's first encounter with Turkish wine was through our founder, Rob İçsezen. Still in Houston when we received our first shipment of wine at the beginning of 2024, Rob took a few wines to pour for Kelly.

And the day he sat down and started trying the wines, he realized that this was the new thing. Turkish wine is going to be big when we get people on board, he thought. He loved Rob’s energy and passion, and the two just clicked. Initially, the plan was to work part-time for Fine Turkish Wine, but in the end, he decided he wanted to be here for the long haul and dove in headfirst!

After studying European wines for so long, one of the things Kelly has found fascinating about Turkish wine is the correlation between grape varieties. He’s a Nebbiolo-lover and says he can see a link between that and the Eastern Anatolian grape, Erciş Karası. 

“Riesling is absolutely my jam,” he said, and he thinks that Turkey is where Alsace was about 10 years ago, before climate change started affecting some of their high-acidity varieties. “It’s like licking a rock with some lemon on it,” he said of one of the high-acid, mineral wines in Fine Turkish Wine’s portfolio. “I’m in love with [Kuzubağ blanc de noir] Çal Karası…it’s like Riesling without the petrol.”

While getting to know Turkish grape varieties, one of the common threads he’s seen is that the whites and reds share a medium-bodied profile with bright acidity and a mineral edge. Perfect for Texas heat!

But he also loves the stories behind the grapes and the wines. Fine Turkish Wine works hard to ensure that as much of our wine as possible comes from smaller and family-run producers who make wine as cleanly as possible. A practice he believes in. 

While we’re sure his love of Nebbiolo and Riesling isn’t going anywhere, we are thrilled by how quickly and wholeheartedly he’s embraced Turkish grapes. He loves Patkara and all the "Karasıs" (there are many grapes in Turkey called "something something" Karası, so that’s a big statement!). 

When asked which he sees as having the most potential, Kelly said: “What’s going to help us stand out are the indigenous varietals that no one can pronounce!” 

Kelly has yet to make it to Turkey but recently watched a 16-part lecture history series about the Ottomans from Tulane University (available on Amazon Prime). “When I get excited about something, I like to dive in”. I am trying to learn Turkish…it’s going very slowly.”

It's ok Kelly, yavaş yavaş, as they say in Turkey! And speaking of those indigenous grapes no one can pronounce, and learning Turkish, Kelly says: 

“I am from Texas, and I do have an accent…He’s [Rob] been having to help me with the pronunciation.” 

Turkish grape names can be a little intimidating - but they’re all easier to say after you’ve had a few glasses!

A Grape Plan to Success

“People in the wine community need to pay attention because this is the next hot thing.”

As Fine Turkish Wine’s new Sales Manager, Kelly has a strategy for getting Turkish wine on the broader Texas and US market. He’s smartly curating where our wine goes, focusing on clientele like wine bars that serve a broader and more interesting range of wines. 

At the moment, thanks to Kelly, you can find some of our wines at places like 13 Celsius, Padres Wine, and now also at The Briar Club! He’s looking to introduce the wines to buyers and sommeliers who appreciate something new and different. 

So far, reception in the Texas wine community has been positive, and people are getting excited about the wines. “The wine community in TX is starting to get excited about it. I see this really as being a thing.”

“I did not know I was going to love it as much as this.”

And we're glad to have you, Kelly - cheers and şerefe to the future!

Next: Check out our August 2025 Turkish Wine Selection, where Kelly picks three of his favorites!

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Andrea Lemieux is an international wine expert with particular expertise in Turkish Wine. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine, the world's only comprehensive English language book on Turkish wine, and she is the founder of The Quirky Cork blog which is dedicated largely to Turkish wine.