Ma'adra Vineyards

Some of my favorite people, wine, and landscape. An excellent trifecta!

Ma'adra is a lovely place, run by lovely people. Located just inland of the Aegean sea, it has hot summers cooled by sea borne winds and has a steep hilly terrain.

The vineyard was founded in 2005 by Mr. Fikret Ozdemir after a successful career in architecture in Izmir (1+ hour away). His daughter is the (very successful) winemaker, and his son-in-law oversees the tasting room/ restaurant.

Their first harvest was in 2012. I first tasted their wines in 2019. I was impressed. As you can see in the pictures here (thanks to their website) they are one of the only (I'm not aware of others) terraced planted vineyards in Turkey. As they lie on the front ridge of a mountain range just a few miles inland from the

sea, their south facing slopes enjoy the best sunlight and cooling breezes. They grow red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir Okuzgozu) and white wine (Chardonnay, Bornova misket) grapes using a low yield,high-qualityy approach. Their wine shows it. Skillfully transformed into wines that are far more sophisticated than their 15 year old vines imply,

Their winemaker has a keen nose and palate and delivers fully developed mature, balanced wines. Their tasting room, foo,d and service is well operated and the food is very good.

But what makes this place special is the people that run it - you can tell they take pride in their land, their grapes, their wine and their impact on people. It is a delight to meet such hard working people that clearly have an idea of quality and the potential of wine. I look forward to future visits.