Project investors pursuit of Turkey’s most suitable wine producing region for Bordeaux varieties started in 2002. They travaled many different regions all around the Turkey to find the best region. Finally in 2007, they found this particular vinegrowing area; historical Gallipoli Region. Parcels are located on Conkbayırı Formation which constitutes topsoil at site. This formation is mainly composed of alluvial pebbles, volcanic tuffs and coarse sand forms along with its clay content. Lower layer is represented by its typical oolitic limestones and also sandstones and shale. Hence vineyard soil has well drainage and adequate water retention and gives wines mineral character. The influence of sea, forest and windy weather gives this area its own special microclimate. The region’s cool climate is different from some other sunny and arid parts of the country.

Density of entire vineyard is 10.000 vines per hectar which is unique in Turkey. Today, we have 170 hectars of vineyards situated in Çanakkale province, on Gallipoli Peninsula, at the Northwest part of Turkey. 80 percent of our vineyards consist of four Bordeaux red wine grape varieties; Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Clones of these varieties were meticulously chosen for their low yield and high quality properties. Same way, most suitable rootstocks are chosen in regard to soil texture, drainage and region’s annual precipitation and they are excellently well adapted to the region.  Cooler clay-rich spots of vineyard are reserved for Merlot. Our observations and micro-vinification essays show worldwide promising results, especially for Cabernet Franc wines. We also have some white wine grapes such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Viognier with their varied characters.

In 2011, Michel Rolland who makes some of the worlds best red wines, participated in the project as consultant. His more than 40 years experience in vitiviniculture will contribute to improve wine quality.

Construction of our gravity-flow winery started in 2012. The winery has 350 barrels capacity of barrel fermentation room, 3500 barrel capacity of barrel aging rooms, 1720 hl of woodentanks, 9000 hl of steel tanks. We are using traditional wine producing methods with help of modern winemaking technologies in order to reach best quality. Transfer of grapes and wine by mobile tanks without using any pumping operation. We are using only egg white for settling and bottling the wine without filtration.

Our brand “Porta Caeli” named after Seçkin Pirim’s sculpture who is one of the most important sculptors of Turkey. He spent an entire day in vineyard and winery and he said “ı feel like i’m in heaven”. Then with this inspiration he crafted his piece as “port to heaven”. The sculpture consist of two sides, each side formed by 50 pieces which represents the hardest first 100 years of viticultural experience.. Depending on the sunlight’s angle the sculpture creates a shadow shaped as a wine glass.