Gelveri Manufactur is in Guzelyurt, in central Anatolia, where Udo Hirsch & Hacer Özkaya founded the winery in 2008, after having restored an old greenhouse to produce wine for selfconsumption.

 

It is a real heritage hidden in a small village located on a plateau at 1500 meters, at the foot of the Hasan Dag volcano. Rather than vineyards as we understand them in Europe, here we are talking about orchards and private gardens of small farmers, where different varieties of indigenous grapes grown as alberello of 200/300 years on a free foot, coexist together with fruit trees; what we once called "promiscuous agriculture". For Udo, in fact, first-class natural wines can only come from vineyards of high biodiversity.

 

Today the harvest is carried out strictly by hand and the vinification takes place in amphorae above ground (Kup in Turkish) some of which date back to 2000 years ago of Roman, Armenian, Ottoman and Byzantine origin and of different capacities: from 300 up to 2000 liters. It is essential to specify that amphorae in Turkey are used above ground, unlike their neighboring Georgian cousins.

 

In production they do not add anything to their wine and do not manipulate it in any way, to be able to give a liquid that is the purest and most authentic expression of the place where they live, the vintage and their know-how. The names of the wines produced are those of the local varieties: Kalecik Karasi, Keten Gömlek, Hasan Dede, Koku üzüm, Kizil üzüm. This produces wines which, coming from rare grapes, are macerated, and aged up to two years.