Ch Kalpak journey began in 1991. After 21 years of living in the US and Paris, I returned to Turkey and experienced a dramatic change in life philosophy: I left investment banking to establish a vineyard and a winery. I acquired the initial parcels beginning in 1992 and established a trial vineyard in Arapli village of Şarköy (Tekirdağ) in which we tried various clones, planting techniques, trellis/pruning systems, and wine making.

The Arapli experience and the knowledge gained thru travelling to about 100+ wineries around the world was applied in establishment of the Ch Kalpak Vineyards in 2003. It took us 12 years to assemble the current Ch Kalpak vineyard property and established the new vineyards in 2003. We made our first wine in the brand new winery in 2010 and patiently waited until the maturity of these wines which were released in 2013. Our first release brought us 9 gold medals in European wine competitions and “Best National Producer 2014” of Turkey with the crowning of the ‘First and Only” “3 star’ rated winery of Turkey.

We planned the vineyards and designed the winery for a simple premium chateau wine from a single vineyard.

In order to achieve this, we picked the best root-stocks and clones of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot to match our terrior at Ch Kalpak vineyards. We subsequently optimized the planting density, parcels, vine exposures versus wind and sun, and trellis system, and planted the vines with laser accuracy. Ch Kalpak intentionally created sloped vineyards in pursuit of better wine reflecting the spirit of Ch Kalpak.