Çal Vineyard Trail Hike

October 11–13, 2024 / Denizli–Çal Vineyard Route The Friends of Cuisine continued their journey to discover and support our country’s gastronomic riches with a trip to Denizli… For years, we have been organizing “wine tourism”—including vineyard tours and winery visits—across various regions, and we place great importance on connecting with the producers of wine, an indispensable element of our country’s gastronomy. 
This time, the Friends of the Kitchen were in Denizli, a region that holds a special place in Turkish winemaking and accounts for approximately 40 percent of our country’s wine production. In this region—which has effectively become the heart of viticulture in our country, featuring both Çal, the homeland of the Çal Karası grape, and the Southern Plateau with its vast vineyards where wine grapes are cultivated by many producers—four producers were visited, and their production facilities were toured. Tastings were held alongside updates on current wine production practices. The itinerary began with a visit to Pamukkale Winery, a leading and long-established producer in the region, and continued with visits to Kuzubağ, Lermonos, and Küp Wineries in the Çal area… 
Visits to the ancient cities of Nyssa and Sardes—believed to be the birthplaces of Dionysus, the ancient god of wine—took place with the informative narration of our dear friend Nedim Atilla. In addition to vineyard tours and tastings, the region’s unique delicacies were also sampled on-site. In Nazilli, Kısmet Pide’s meat-stuffed, ground meat-stuffed, clotted cream-and-cheese-stuffed, and tahini-stuffed flatbreads; the Denizli tandır, prepared with lamb under one year old at Kocabaylar in central Denizli; and the wood-fired meatballs at Azaklar—a 113-year-old institution in Salihli—were among the regional dishes sampled throughout the trip.