Barnaby Does Istanbul: Süryani Winemaking in Mardin

As some of you may know, I'm writing my Masters thesis on the cultural heritage of winemaking in Anatolia (Turkey). My main case study is the winemaking culture of the Süryani people in the region of Tur 'Abdin - which stretches roughly from the city of Mardin eastward to the Tigris River and south to the Syrian plain.

So last weekend I went to Mardin to see what sorts of remnants of winemaking culture exist amongst the Süryani people living there today. This involved visiting monasteries, churches, an excavation of an ancient winepress and, of course, going to wineries and meeting Süryani winemakers.

the town of Mardin

grape vines on someone's back patio - almost everyone grows their own grapes

Tur ‘Abdin, means “the Mountain of the Servants of God” in Syriac. The region has historically been populated by Christian Aramaean communities who have been making wine there since roughly 1000 BCE. Süryanis have left their mark on the landscape, including construction of Christian monasteries and wine presses within the region, some of which exist to this day and some of which are even still in use.

We visited some of the monasteries in the region to survey remnants of a history and culture of winemaking, and sure enough we found grapevine mosaics and rock carvings in these monasteries.

mosaics showing grapevines

winepress in one Mor Gabriel

Grape vine carvings in Mor Gabriel Monastery

courtyard in Mor Gabriel

A remarkable ancient winemaking system was unearthed about a year ago outside of Mardin which has been named Çelibra. It is unknown exactly when the system was made, but it is of a massive scale, comprised of 8 huge treading floors and 104 tanks, all cut directly out of one piece of stone. The system was constructed in a way that utilizes gravitational force to funnel the wine from one stage of the process to the next. Ingenius! The scale of the winepress makes us think that it was producing wine for export, but it will be useful to know when it was constructed...more of that in my thesis!

one of the treading floors

one of the tanks

small tank directly under the treading floor that served as a kind of filter before overflowing into a bigger tank

some of the tanks directly under the treading floors

the funneling system

the tanks

the winemaking system

another view of the winemaking system

three tanks located underneat a treading floor

street in Old Mardin

Church in Old Mardin

and then I met with some local winemakers! This guy showed us his cork press.

view up to the acropolis from my hotel

this is the stone that a Saint carried back to his Monastery from (then) Constantinople after exorcising the devil from the Emperor's daughter soul! or so goes the story...