Mehmet Vuran is the owner and winemaker at Garova in the Karaova Valley of Bodrum, Turkey. He was born in 1972 and is an agricultural engineer. He worked as a civil servant for the government for 12 years. At the end of 1999, he was involved in a traffic accident and was medically retired in 2003.
In 2004, he began experimenting with winemaking, starting with just 20 liters. He quickly developed a passion for it and increased production the following year. What began as a hobby continued for 14 years, and in 2016 he established his own small winery. Today, he produces approximately 10,000 bottles of wine annually.
He has no formal education in winemaking; instead, he is self-taught, having learned through hands-on experience, experimentation, and continuous reading. Media Inquiries: mvuran48@gmail.com | https://www.garova.com/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
The brand name is the local pronunciation of the valley’s name. It’s both the name of the place and the name used by the local people. It highlights our local identity. Besides, it’s easy to pronounce, memorable, and suitable for all languages and people.
Our winery is located in the village where I was born and raised. Our family has lived here for 200 years. Our first vineyard was established 40 years ago. The village atmosphere and life are intertwined with the wine. Only family members work in the business; there are no other employees. It’s not industrial production. The wines are wild-fermented. Almost all of them are sold to visitors who come to the winery. There are no consultants or winemakers at the winery. I make all the wine myself. And I live my life in a wheelchair.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
I make the wine using the Wild Ferment method. But if everything were suitable, I would love to make it in earthenware jars. That way, it would be a wine like those from ancient times.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Our Zinfandel wine has become like the winery’s signature wine. Because there are only two wineries in our country that produce it. And people loved that wine. The owners of our neighboring winery lived in California for about 10 years. There, they discovered Zinfandel and loved it. When they returned to Turkey, they decided to grow Zinfandel because the climate was similar. I bought some grapes from them for a few years and made wine. When I liked it too, we took some cuttings from them and grafted them onto our own vineyard. And now we have a small Zinfandel vineyard. Its first vintage was the harvest of 2023. I tasted this wine during our visit to Bodrum. Here’s the Garova Zin wine review.
Bonus Question: Why Winemaking?
In my first attempt, seeing the grapes turn into wine without any intervention impressed me greatly. It was like a miracle. Then I started researching and learning about wine. Wine is a very deep culture. It comes from ancient times to the present day. Vineyards and wine are the only agricultural product in the world that has tourism. It is a common cultural value of humanity. Something that unites people. Just like it brought us together. Like the common language of humanity. Every geography and country may have its own drink, but the common drink of the whole world is wine. And it has a common language. You can talk about it for days.