Mey Alcoholic Beverages opens a wine academy in Taksim in a seven-storey building to provide knowledge on wine and wine culture in Turkey. The academy opens its doors at the end of this month and will hold events from wine auctions to vintage tours
A “Kayra Wine Academy” has been founded to help develop wine culture in Turkey by Texas Pacific Group (TPG), the parent company of Mey Alcoholic Beverages' (Mey İçki).

  The academy, which will be open in Taksim on March 20 under Mey İçki's umbrella wine brand's name Kayra, will provide services from wine laboratories to auctions and wine tours. Bülent Özfırat, director of Kayra Wines, said homemade wines could also be tested at the academy.

  The academy will also have a restaurant and a boutique. Kayra Wines director, Bülent Özfırat, said the wine laboratory will be open to all consumers and producers, adding, “We will offer services to consumers that produce wine exclusively at home and to small boutique producers. They will be able to taste their wines' quality here.”

 Training from YTL 90

  Özfırat said there were 1,000 types of wine at the academy and added, “We aim to improve the knowledge of wine devotees by offering trainings. We will offer various training programs to consumers, companies, businessmen and barmen.” Özfırat said the prices for training programs will start from YTL 90, adding, “Our boutique, full of wines from various countries of the world will be one the favorite places of wine devotees. Throughout the year, we will organize events at the academy's restaurant introducing wines and cuisine of specific countries together.”

 A library of wine

  Bülent Özfırat said many experts would visit the academy, and added, “Kayra Wine Academy will give the internationally renowned Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) trainings and examinations. We provide the training for those asking for the WSET certificate.”

  Özfırat said there will be a wine library at the academy and added: “There are precious resources on wine in the library. We worked hard to come up with interesting services to offer to those interested in wine, wanting to work in the wine business or to invest in wine. Consumers and producers will be able to have wines tested at our laboratories and have detailed knowledge on wine quality and synthesis.”

 Wine tours

  Özfırat said the academy would arrange various events from wine auctions to vintage tours, adding, “All these tours will cost more than 1,000 euros. Wine devotees are very interested in experiencing a vintage wine.” Özfırat said they already scheduled this year's tour program. “The tour destinations for 2008 include Bordeaux, Napa and Toscana, which are known for their wines.”

Undeclared producers leave the market

  Talking on the banderole system for alcoholic beverages Özfırat said, “This system is a very positive step toward solving the problem of the unregistered economy in the sector. Many small unregistered producers left the market.” Özfırat said the market had capacity of 8-9 million liters and 60 percent of this came about by undeclared producers. “After the banderole system came into force, many unregistered producers stopped buying grapes,” he said, adding that the aridity Turkey was experiencing increased the quality of the grapes gathered from the provinces of Elazığ, Diyarbakır and Denizli, which led to an increase in the quality of wines.