Heraki Wines
Heraki Wines is the family winery of Fulya Akıncı from Turkey and José Hernández from Spain, a couple who met while studying enology in Bordeaux. After working in some highly regarded international wineries in the North and South hemispheres, they moved to Turkey in 2014 and started to develop an idea that had been in their minds for a long time – to produce wines from old vineyards with native grape varieties from several traditional Turkish regions and make unique, authentic and different wines. In 2019, they produced their first vintage. HERAKI’s wines are created in the vineyard. Therefore, the winemaking process is handcrafted with minimal intervention, where nature is prioritized.
Viticultural Information
The vineyards are mainly situated in the Çal-Denizli region at altitudes of 800 to 950 meters. They are small vineyard plots owned by different grape growers from various villages. One of the winery's aims is to preserve the added value of these landscapes and the life work of the vineyard growers. The vineyards consist of 35+ to 80-year-old vines of Sultaniye, Çal Karası, and Boğazkere grapes, cultivated using dry farming bush vines, as has been the tradition in viticultural practices in the region for decades, due to its severe continental climate. The soils are mainly composed of clay with limestone.
Winemaking
The 20,000-bottle facility is situated in the Aegean region of Alaşehir, Manisa. It is equipped with small vessels to process and ferment each vineyard plot separately. Aging is done in ovoid tanks, French barrels, and oak casks of different sizes and ages, depending on each terroir. Low intervention winemaking aims to transmit a sense of place and local heritage through nuanced vineyard expression. Heraki wines have eight different labels.
