I'm going to Istanbul tomorrow and then on to Antalya a few days later. We drink wine,red and rose, with our meals. Anybody have any opinions on the availability/quality of such both in restaurants and stores?

Wine is available, but at a very high markup. It is okay in Istanbul, but better in some parts of the country where there are local producers.

My wife is the wine drinker and she is content with wines for under $10 for a bottle back home and she was not impressed with the wines in Turkey.

I can't comment on rose since I don't drink it; I'm a red wine drinker and I didn't have any problems. There were some that were actually pretty good. Unless you want the very best reds or roses, I think you'll be good. Enjoy Turkey!

Try Nodus, especially the shiraz. Recently won something at a tasting.

In Antalya, Likya wines are the best. We enjoyed their rose as well as their red.

Malatya Karaoglan grapes are good if you can find them.

The Corvus of Bozcaada is overrated , i think.

Some of the more expensive Sevilen wines, Doluca Karma, Doluca DLCs and Doluca Kav are fine. So is Kavaklidere Selection.

Kalecik Karasi grapes from Ankara region usually make smooth wines.

I do not like Angora, Yakut, Villa Doluca, Buzbag, Dikmen which are the more common cheaper wines. In fact, it is seldom that i can find a reasonable wine for less than 25TL at a shop (Karmen was one such recently)

As jmphilly says, restaurants almost triple the wholesale price of wines. It is also unfortunate that the islamic fundamentalist government imposes a huge tax on all alcoholic drinks.

Kavaklidere has variety of wines including their new lines are usually is the best choice, Pamukkale Wines, Doluca (DLC) are also widely available.

Altought they are local wineries of Cappadocia Turasan and Kocabag labels are also good options especially white with Emir grapes and Kocabag's Cote D' Avanos, Turasans Merlot, Shyrah and Cabarnet couplings of their Seneler category are good red ones.
http://www.turasan.com.tr/english/uk...p-seneler.html

www.winesofturkey.com/

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/d...ood/Wines.html

As said above be aware Alcoholic beverages are expensive in Turkey as the gasoline thanks to hefty taxes !

Enjoy and happy travelling,

Murat

Everybody was pretty much right. OK wine was available in restaurants in Kas and Kalkan but not in Istanbul. Almost all of the modest price restaurants don't serve wine at all.The more expensive ones that do serve wine have huge markups. We pretty much have our wine with coctails at the hotel before going out for dinner. The Kavaklidere red we are drinking now isn't bad.