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’ve been organizing “wine tourism” tours—including vineyard routes and winery visits—in various regions, and we place great importance on connecting with the producers of wine, an indispensable element of gastronomy, right here in our country. 
This time, the Friends of the Kitchen visited 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 wine production. 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 commentary of our dear friend Nedim Atilla. In addition to vineyard tours and tastings, the region’s special delicacies were also sampled on-site. In Nazilli, Kısmet Pide’s meat-filled, ground beef-filled, clotted cream-and-cheese-filled, and tahini-filled pide; the Denizli tandır, prepared with lamb meat from lambs under one year old at Kocabaylar in central Denizli; and the wood-fired meatballs from Azaklar—a 113-year-old institution in Salihli—were among the regional dishes sampled throughout the tour.