Ürgüp Wine Houses

How to Complete

5 steps curated by Wine Memories

1. 📜 1

   Read the Stone That Survived Three Empires

   history Free

   📍 WHERE: Cumhuriyet Meydanı — Ürgüp's main square, at the foot of the volcanic hill that splits the town. Walk to the west side of the square and face the old stone building now serving as Dutlu Mosque.

   💡 WHAT: You're standing in the center of what the Romans called Assiana — the same name this town had when wine flowed from terracotta amphorae in 17 AD. That building in front of you was built as a stone Ottoman mansion 250 years ago, by a Greek wine-producing family. The minaret came later — it was bolted on after 1923, when the Greek families were expelled in the population exchange. The wine culture, the carved stone, the grape vines — they all stayed. The families had to leave.

   🎯 HOW: Stand in the square at dusk, when the volcanic tuff stone turns copper-orange. Look up at the hill behind the town — those dark openings in the rock face are cave cellars. The wine made inside them tonight is the same wine Romans drank in Assiana. Ask yourself: of everything in this square — the mosque, the mansions, the cave openings — what's been here the longest? Answer: the vines. They outlasted Rome, Byzantium, the Seljuks, the Ottomans, and the 1923 exchange alike.

   🔄 BACKUP: If the light isn't right, the square is equally atmospheric after dark when the caves are lit from inside. Walk to the east of the square to see the grandest Greek-era stone mansions — decorated door frames, carved lintels, a whole neighborhood of buildings whose owners haven't lived here for 100 years.

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2. 📜 2

   Find the First Man Who Made Wine Illegally in Cappadocia

   history $

   📍 WHERE: Tevfik Fikret Caddesi No. 12, Ürgüp — a 600-year-old carved tuff stone building two minutes' walk west of Cumhuriyet square. Look for the Efendi Wine House sign. The building predates the Ottoman conquest of this area.

   💡 WHAT: In 1983, the owner Yucel Bey's family became the first private homemade wine producer in Cappadocia — at a time when private wine production was legally complicated in Turkey. There's a competing claim to that title: one street over, the Sarıkaya family opened their Mahzen wine house the same year. Two families, same year, both claim the same title. They've been debating it for 42 years and neither has conceded. When you walk into Efendi, you're entering one half of the oldest rivalry in modern Cappadocian wine.

   🎯 HOW: Enter the stone room and let your eyes adjust. The walls are tuff rock — the same volcanic material that formed 9 million years ago when Erciyes volcano buried this valley. Wine was first made here because the geology is perfect: porous rock, mineral-rich, cool inside even in August heat. Ask to try the Emir (white) and the Öküzgözü/Boğazkere blend (red). A tasting of 3 glasses runs around 300 lira. Ask Yucel Bey: 'Were you really first in 1983?' Watch the answer.

   🔄 BACKUP: Open daily 10:00–22:00. No reservation needed. If Yucel Bey isn't present, the staff know the story.

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3. 🍷 3

   Taste the Grape That Exists Nowhere Else on the Planet

   wine $

   📍 WHERE: At the tasting counter inside Efendi Wine House — or at any of Ürgüp's wine houses. This step is about a single grape in a single glass, not the building.

   💡 WHAT: Order an Emir. Just Emir. Not a blend — pure Emir. This grape grows ONLY in Cappadocia's volcanic tuff region. It has been tried in other parts of Turkey, in other countries, in vineyards with similar altitude and climate. It doesn't work. The porous tuff soil, the specific mineral profile from these exact volcanoes, the altitude — take any element away and Emir produces something completely different or doesn't produce at all. When you raise this glass, you are holding something that cannot exist anywhere else.

   🎯 HOW: Tell the person pouring you want the Emir on its own, unoaked if possible. Smell first: green apple, pear, citrus — and underneath that, something mineral. What you're tasting is 9 million years of volcanic activity converted into flavor. The profile feels 'salty' — that's not seasoning, that's the tuff leaching minerals into the roots that go 40 meters down through soft rock. Hold the glass to the light: pale gold, almost water-clear. Drink slowly. This is a wine that gets boring in a wine shop anywhere in the world, but here, 50 meters from the vines that made it, it tastes like the land itself has become drinkable.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Emir is unavailable at Efendi, the Kocabağ sales point on Cumhuriyet square stocks it. Any Cappadocian Emir from any producer makes the same point — the grape is the story, not the label.

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4. ⛰️ 4

   Hunt the Rival Family's Cave Behind the Hamam

   adventure $

   📍 WHERE: İstiklal Caddesi No. 20, Ürgüp — directly behind (or beside) the old city hamam (bathhouse). The alley narrows here. Look for the Mahzen Şarap Evi sign. If you can smell the hamam's steam, you've gone the right direction.

   💡 WHAT: The Sarıkaya family — Hasan, his wife Gulshen, and son Tuna — have been making wine in a micro-winery in nearby Mustafapaşa since 1983. They bring the bottles to this cozy back-alley cave room in Ürgüp to sell them. When you walk in, you enter an antique room lined with cushioned benches and a glowing soba (wood stove). The contrast with Efendi Wine House a few hundred meters away is the whole point: that one is a 600-year-old stone building with a contested origin story. This one is a family living room that happens to sell wine. Both started the same year, both claim priority. The wines are completely different.

   🎯 HOW: Mahzen has no tasting license, so you can't taste here — you buy. But Gulshen knows every bottle and will describe each one. They make conventional reds and whites AND fruit wines (pomegranate, mulberry, green apple, blackberry) — the fruit is added during fermentation, not added afterwards. Buy a bottle of their Öküzgözü-based red and a pomegranate wine for comparison. A standard bottle runs 500–1,500 lira depending on variety. Wrap them in clothing for the journey home. Ask about the 1983 claim. Their answer will be different from Efendi's.

   🔄 BACKUP: If the soba room is full or the family isn't in, the Kocabağ sales point on Cumhuriyet square is the easiest alternative for take-home bottles. Open most days — no fixed hours, family-operated.

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5. ⛰️ 5

   Witness the 52nd Grape Harvest in Cumhuriyet Square

   Optional

   adventure Free

   📍 WHERE: Cumhuriyet Meydanı (town square) for the opening parade; then follow the procession to the Üç Güzeller (Three Beauties fairy chimneys) region and Damsa Stream festival grounds, just east of town center.

   💡 WHAT: The International Ürgüp Grape Harvest Festival has been held every year since approximately 1974 — it is in its 52nd edition. While the world's famous wine festivals launched their Instagram-ready editions in the 2000s, Ürgüp was already doing this when it was just a town tradition. The parade kicks off in Cumhuriyet Square with folk dancers in traditional Cappadocian costume, then moves to the fairy chimneys. At the festival grounds: grape stomping, pekmez (grape syrup) production, the 'Best Grape of the Year' competition, vine-picking, light shows at night. Free entry to the main festival area.

   🎯 HOW: The festival runs in September (7–8 September in 2026; typically early October in other years — check urgup.bel.tr for the current year's dates). Arrive at Cumhuriyet Square by 10am on the first day for the parade. Follow on foot to the fairy chimney area — about 2km east of town. The evening light show at the fairy chimneys, with wine in hand purchased from one of the festival vendors, is the specific moment to be present for. Bring a jacket — September nights at 1,200m altitude drop fast.

   🔄 BACKUP: If outside harvest season, walk the vineyards around Ürgüp in the morning before an evening in the wine houses — the landscape context makes the wine taste completely different. Even in winter, the volcanic tuff ridge above the vineyards is visible and the story is the same.

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