Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Melen Winery in Hoskoy

On May 22, we crossed from the Saros side of the peninsula to the Marmara side.  We lunched in Sarkoy and then travelled up a narrow winding sea side road to the village of Hoskoy to visit the Melen Winery.  In Hoskoy they have a small store where they sell their wines. They also "manufacture" and bottle the wine on this site.

Winery building on the waterfront in Hoskoy.

This small machine is loaded and unloaded by hand.  It will fill and cork about 1000 bottles of wine each hour.

Taking wine out of the filling machine and loading the bottles into crates.
Bottles are stored upright for 24 hours to give corks time to expand, then
the bottles are labelled.

Us in front of the 1001W!

Our host and tour guide, A. Cem Centintas, the owner of Melen Winery.
This winery has been in his family for three generations.
His 91 year old father is retired. 

Wine in chrome tanks, fermenting or awaiting bottling.

500 year old amphora.  Amphora were used to transport olive oil and wine by sea.

They were usually sealed with wood (pine) and bees' wax.

According to one website I visited the winery was acquired from departing Greeks in 1923 by Great Grandfather Cetintas.  I like the story here about the Cetintas family and the debt they owe to the St. Ioannis Monastry.
http://www.melenwinery.com/english/hoskoy/st-ioannis-theologos-monastery/the-st-ioannis-theologos-monastry/

4 comments:

  1. 1000 bottles an hour? Wow!

    Did you bring any home to try?

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    Replies
    1. Cam has been there been before so this was more of a restocking trip.

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  2. I can hear my Mom licking her lips while she is reading this ...LOL. Fabulous field trip!

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    Replies
    1. It was totally serendipitous. I asked a few questions and suddenly we were being invited into the factory. The owner was obviously very proud of his family's accomplishments.

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Thanks!