Feature: The Women of Turkish Wine

Once people get over their surprise to discover Turkey makes wine (if they ever do!), the next shock they receive is when they learn that, in Turkey, wine is a heavily female-influenced industry. And so, on March 8, when the world celebrates International Women’s Day, we will mark the day by lifting a glass to the amazing women who elevate the Turkish wine industry.

Nearly one third of the wineries in Turkey have women as owners, winemakers, viticulturalists, educators, product and sales managers, and sommeliers. In addition, almost all those who work the harvests are women. While you will often find a man driving a tractor or shifting the heavy boxes filled with grapes, it is women who do the grueling job of harvesting.

Internationally, Turkey does not have the best reputation when it comes to the treatment of women. And this reputation, combined with the general lack of women in the global wine industry, makes it rather astonishing to folks outside of Turkey that, in fact, the Turkish wine industry is welcoming to women.

But for Turks, it comes as no surprise. Turkish women gained political rights, along with the right to vote, in the 1930s, before many countries in Europe. Tansu Çiller became the country's first woman Prime Minister in 1993. And Turkish women hold many positions of power in business, among which are the many women lawyers that the owner of Fine Turkish Wine, Rob İçsezen, was honored to have worked with as an attorney at the Istanbul office of White & Case, a world leading international law firm. In fact, Rob's boss when he was at White & Case, Aslı Başgöz (who is sadly no longer with us), was the first woman elected to a leadership role in that firm's history, and the first woman to serve on the firm’s global management team.

Consistent with this notion, in our interviews with women in the Turkish wine industry, when asked if they face problems stemming from being women, the responses have been overwhelmingly, no. Turkish women must deal with many issues: such as making and promoting an alcoholic beverage in an increasingly anti-alcohol country, massive inflation, and simply being Turkish in a sector that reveres foreign consultants. But these are challenges that confront both women and men here in Turkey.

So who are these exceptional women? Given the remarkable number of women in the industry, it is not possible in one article to mention all the talented women working in Turkish wine. As such, we’ll concentrate on some of the women behind our fantastic winery partners.

Şeniz Saç - Arda Winery

Şeniz Saç, Arda Winery

Şeniz Saç is the daughter of Arda winery founder Ilyas Saç and the winery’s winemaker. Şeniz was working as an editor for a food and beverage magazine in the early 2000s when she and her father began making wine at home. Fascinated by the transformation of grapes into wine, when Ilyas suggested establishing a winery, Şeniz knew right away that she wanted to be the winemaker. She first pursued a foundation in food sciences in the Netherlands before being accepted into an enology program in Toulouse.

While she tries to avoid stereotyping and making sexist assumptions, Şeniz does see a difference in female vs male-made wines. She notices a difference in discipline and the care taken, both in the winery and in the vineyard, between women and men and believes “that this difference ultimately reflects in the wine as well.”

Şeniz believes there are a number of reasons for the high rate of women in Turkish wine beginning with the fact that it is almost exclusively women who do the vineyard work.

Turkish vineyard worker

Already accepted as valued workers in the fields, their transition to the winery is seen as a natural step. Similarly, Şeniz said, in the engineering world here, chemistry and food engineering are considered to be more “women-friendly.” This again creates an easy entree into the wine industry as wine here must be certified by an oenologist or a food chemist. Moreover, Şeniz sees Turkey’s choppy wine history as a boon to women. Unlike Europe, where family legacies more often than not pass wineries and winemaking from father to son, there is no such misogynistic tradition in the relatively young Turkish wineries. Modern winemaking really began taking shape in Turkey only in the 1990s and 2000s, dates which Şeniz points out, also coincided “...with the years when the women’s movement in Turkey was at its most vibrant and achieved significant gains.”

Young as it is, Arda winery already has a well-established reputation for innovation and experimentation. When asked what kind of project she would love to take on next, Şeniz said: “... my long-time passion has been exploring every possible expression of Papazkarası. So far, I believe we’ve done well with its white, rosé, and red versions, but the goal is always to improve…but my real dream, because I love it myself, is to make a Papazkarası sparkling wine.”

We hope she does, and can't wait to taste it and bring it to the US market!

Madlen Abdo - Antioche Wines

Madlen Abdo, Antioche Wines

Madlen Abdo, co-owner of Antioche Winery, grew up in a wine-loving house which contributed to her own love of it. Now, she’s the force behind Antioche’s production and sales operations. Her love of wine has sparked an enduring fascination in the process and has said that there is no end to what can be learned! While happy in her current role, Madlen would like to learn as much about winemaking, viticulture, and winery management as she can.

Speaking of wine, Madlen is especially proud of their Barburi wines. The grape’s history stretches back to the Eastern Roman Empire and, until Antioche resurrected it, had been nearly lost to that history. She feels the responsibility of Antioche’s stewardship of the grape and hopes to be part of introducing it around the world.

Prior to the tragic 2023 earthquake that devastated Antakya, Madlen was working on a project to create an Antiochian restaurant that would sit in the vineyards. The restaurant would offer both a space for wine tasting events as well as a menu of Antakya’s gastronomic delights. The region, Hatay in particular, is well-known as being one of Turkey’s major culinary centers and, in a few years, Madlen intends to see the project restarted.

Zeynep Arca Şallıel - Odrysia Vineyards

Zeynep Arca Şallıel, Odrysia Vineyards

Zeynep Arca Şallıel, co-founded Arcadia Vineyards, marketed under the name ‘Odrysia’ in the US, in 2004. Zeynep’s path took some twists and turns, winding like a vine, until she reached the world of wine. Through her university in Paris she learned about contemporary French culture-including food and wine which planted the first wine loving seeds. She and her friends would save up every week to go out to a nice restaurant for food and wine; or a really nice bottle of wine with bread and cheese at home. However, after returning to Turkey, she worked first in advertising, then in her family’s tourism development company, not in wine. It was during her years working with her father that the dream of wine really took hold, and in 2004, Zeynep and her wine-loving father founded Arcadia Vineyards.

Zeynep believes that thriving in the world of wine requires skill sets that women are more naturally inclined to having. Empathy, cooperation, and the ability to deal with situations one cannot control (such as weather) come more naturally to women than to men. One could argue that these are attributes women have had to develop to navigate life but that women in the wine industry put them to excellent use.

When she first started the winery, Zeynep’s main goal was to create terroir-driven wines. Her vineyards, located in upper Thrace in the complex soils of the Istranca Massif foothills provide the perfect conditions for just that. For her though, it’s more than creating wines with a particular flavor profile. When one understands and respects both the fact that wine is a living product and the thousands of years that it has been a part of human history, and brings that understanding and respect to winemaking, you get more than just a wine with a particular taste. You get a part of the winemaker’s soul.

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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.