Why Ganos?

Ganos viticulture and wine production company is located in Murefte. However; the name comes from Ganos Village (now known as Gazikoy) in the southwest of Tekirdag, 17 km from Murefte and 30 km from Sarkoy, an ancient Byzantine metropolis famous for its amphoras and wines. It is the Ganos Mountains that give the grapes of Murefte and Sarkoy their quality, richness and body.

The mountains of Doluca and Ganos enclose the region within a valley, thus creating permanent warm winds and a unique microclimate which is an essential element of great vineyards. The coastline between Gazikoy and Murefte constantly embraces the north, northeast and southwest winds and breezes. The southeast winds of Istanbul come untouched to the shores of the region. The captains of distant seas claim that they never experienced the storms they survived in the Marmara Sea, even in the Pacific. Therefore, Ganos viticulture and wine production company is inspired by the nature and the history of Ganos for its trademark and its mission to produce high quality wine.

History: (History of Ancient Ganos)

According to the ancient Greek geographer Strabon (BC 65- AC 23) Ganos was founded by Greeks in the 1st century BC as a small colonial town by the Marmara Sea.

In Ancient times, Ganos was known as a Holy Mountain and it became a place of pilgrimage for seamen passing through the straits. In the Middle Ages, it became famous for its monasteries and witnessed massive settlements just like Olympos and Athos of Bithynia. Until the 13th century Ganos was the bishop's seat. By the 14th century, it had taken its place in history as an important metropolis . Raids by the Turks, that started and continued periodically after the middle of the 14th century, and the conquest of Istanbul, made Ganos and its neighborhood a part of the Ottoman Empire.

In those days Gazikoy produced wine in amphoras and pitchers (Kabakulaklar after the ear-shaped handles), from the high quality grapes of the region. Nowadays, the bottled wines are loaded on to trucks to start their journey. However, in the old times the priests of the monasteries and the public used to transport the wine in amphoras to distant places in their ships. Unfortunately, these ships often sank, taking great historical artifacts along with them. Research along all the coastline museums from Trabzon to Antakya shows that Ganos amphoras travelled to almost all the ancient harbors of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Furthermore, research shows that Ganos wine was drunk in the most important capital of the time, Constantinopolis, and the states around the Black Sea.

Kaynak: İst Üni Prof.Dr. Nergis Günsenin