Best Wine Tours

Turkey is one of the oldest wine regions in the world, and it surprises most visitors that it still makes good wine today, much of it from grapes grown nowhere else, such as Emir, Kalecik Karasi, Okuzgozu and Bogazkere. The tours on this page visit three regions: Cappadocia in central Anatolia, the Aegean coast around Izmir and Kusadasi, and Thrace, west of Istanbul. All are private, with a driver so nobody in your party has to stay sober for the road.

Cappadocia: the short option

The Cappadocia Wine Tasting Tour with Expert starts at $140 per person for two to three hours. You taste four local wines with cheese in a cellar cut into the rock at Kocabag Winery, then walk through the vineyard. It is the easiest to fit in: an afternoon after a morning of valleys, or the day of a cancelled balloon flight. The volcanic soil and cold winters of the region give white wines from the Emir grape a sharp, mineral taste.

The Aegean coast

Two tours start from the port or hotels of Kusadasi or Izmir. The Private Wine Tasting Tour from Kusadasi Shore, from $300 per person, visits the ruins of ancient Teos before tastings at the MMG and Ayda wineries, with a wine-paired lunch included. The Urla Wine & Art Tour, from $380 per person, combines the Arkas Art museum, the Cakir and HUS wineries and the ancient olive oil works of Klazomenai; lunch is not included. The first suits cruise passengers because it is timed to the ship; the second suits travellers staying in Izmir or Cesme.

Near Ephesus, the hill village of Sirince is known for its fruit wines. They are sweet and not to everyone's taste, but a stop is easy to add to an Ephesus day; see our Sirince village guide.

Thrace from Istanbul

The Turkish Wine Tasting Tour from Istanbul is $580 per person for a ten-hour private day in the Thracian wine country, with tastings at Arcadia and Barbare vineyards and a wine-paired lunch by the Sea of Marmara. The price includes a licensed guide and the private van. It is a long day with about two and a half to three hours on the road each way, so it is not a good choice for your last day before a flight.

A week of wine

The 7 Days Private Wine Tasting Tour in Turkey, from $3,800 per person, links Thrace, Cappadocia, Ephesus and Pamukkale with tastings at Barbare, MMG and Ayda among others. Domestic flights, museum tickets and guides are included; hotels and most meals are not, so you can choose your own standard. For other week-long private routes, see our multi-day trips.

When to go and what to know

Harvest runs from late August to October, which is the most interesting time at the wineries. Spring is quieter and greener. In July and August the Aegean tours are hot in the vineyards; cellars are cool. The legal drinking age in Turkey is 18. Alcohol cannot be sold in shops between 10pm and 6am, so if you want to buy bottles, do it at the winery.

A wine day on the Aegean coast pairs well with an Ephesus visit on another day; our shore excursions list shows the Ephesus options from Kusadasi and Bodrum.