Wine in Cappadocia: volcanic soil, old cellars and today's grapes

Winemaking in Cappadocia is old, but the dates are thinner than the legends: Anatolia is among the oldest wine lands, Hittite-era texts mention vineyards, Byzantine-era rock-cut basins in the region are usually identified as presses, and today the white grapes Emir and Narince, grown around Ürgüp, carry the region’s name. This guide follows that line from the vines of the Hittite age to the tuff cellars, says where the evidence is firm and where it is only usually said, and explains why the climate suits the vine. For a tasting, see wine tasting in Ürgüp. It gives no prices, hours or winery recommendations.

A short timeline, with how sure we are

Period	What is said	How firm
Second millennium BC	Hittite-era texts from central Anatolia mention vineyards and wine, including wine in ritual	Documented for Anatolia, not specific to Cappadocia
Byzantine centuries	Rock-cut basins, troughs and storerooms are identified as presses and cellars	Usually identified; dates uncertain
Ottoman period	Orthodox Christian villages such as Sinasos (Mustafapaşa) are associated with wine	Commonly said
After the 1923 exchange	The population exchange agreed in 1923 ended that community’s presence; local winemaking is generally said to have shrunk	Commonly said
Later twentieth century	Wineries around Ürgüp revive the region’s wine under modern methods	Visible today

Read the table as a map of confidence, not a chronology to quote.

Vines before Cappadocia was Cappadocia

Wine is a very old Anatolian habit. The Hittite state, whose heartland lay in central Anatolia, to the north of Cappadocia, left written laws and ritual texts in which vineyards and wine appear; the history overview puts the Hittites in context. That tells us the vine was grown in the plateau country, not that any particular Cappadocian vineyard is that old.

Presses and cellars in the rock

The region’s soft tuff is the other half of the story. Rock that can be carved can be dug into for storage, and a chamber cut in the rock keeps a cool, steady temperature that suits wine. Rock-cut troughs and basins in underground cities and rock settlements are usually identified as places where grapes were pressed, as the Kaymaklı guide notes, and they are generally placed in the Byzantine centuries, when monastic and village communities worked the land. Dates for individual basins vary and many sources disagree, so treat any single date with caution.

Cellars cut into rock are still part of the picture today; ask a producer whether theirs is carved. The geology behind it is in how fairy chimneys formed.

The Greek villages and the 1923 exchange

The Orthodox Christian communities of villages such as Sinasos, today Mustafapaşa, are usually associated with winemaking in the late Ottoman period, along with churches and carved stone mansions; the Mustafapaşa guide describes the village. The population exchange agreed in 1923 ended their presence over the following years, and local wine is generally said to have declined with it before a modern revival. The details of that decline are not in our sources, so this guide does not put figures on it.

Today’s grapes

Emir is the white grape most closely tied to the region, and Narince, another white, is also commonly grown; whites from them are typically dry and fresh, though style depends on the producer. Red wines are made as well, and some producers use grapes from other parts of Anatolia, so a red on a local list is not necessarily a local grape. Ask a winery which grapes are grown on its own land.

Questions worth asking a producer

History is easier to taste than to read, and four questions turn a tasting into a lesson. Which grapes grow on your own land, and which do you buy in? Is the cellar carved into the rock, and may I see it? How old are the vines? If there is a rock-cut basin on the property, who identified it as a press, and on what grounds? A good host answers plainly and says “I do not know” when nobody does; be wary of an exact date with no source behind it.

Why the climate suits the vine

The Nevşehir climate file explains much of it:

Month	Average high	Average low	Day-night swing	Sun, hours a day	Rain
January	4.0 °C	−3.6 °C	7.6 °C	3.1	45.4 mm
July	28.5 °C	13.7 °C	14.8 °C	11.9	9.4 mm
August	28.7 °C	13.6 °C	15.1 °C	11.3	8.4 mm
September	24.5 °C	10.5 °C	14.0 °C	9.4	14.3 mm

Source: Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM), Nevşehir, 1959–2025. The swing is average high minus average low. Summers are dry, with about 9 mm of rain in July and August against an annual total of about 423 mm on the monthly averages, and days and nights differ by about 15 °C, a contrast growers value. Winters are the cost: the record low is −21.2 °C in January and −23.6 °C in February. For month-by-month weather, see when to visit Cappadocia.

Where to stay

Wine is mentioned in three of the 80 records, and one more hotel suits the story of old Ürgüp. 4 Oda Cave House in Ürgüp’s Temenni neighbourhood is the one record that ticks a winery on site, with a bar, a restaurant, a terrace and a garden. Ürgüp Evi has 12 rooms, a restaurant, a bar and a winery next door. Amber Cave Suites in Göreme lists local wine tasting on a terrace with views over Cappadocia. Aja Cappadocia Hotel, pictured at the top, is a restored historic mansion in Ürgüp with ten individually themed rooms and a restaurant. After choosing, you can book through gocappadocia.com, the regional booking platform created through the combined efforts of 175 Cappadocia hoteliers, with a best-price guarantee; this guide takes no commission.