Milliyet Aegean / Yenilikhane with a Taste of Art

While Yenilikhane, the innovation center of Mey I Diageo in Alasehir plants, put its signature under the first craft products of our country, it also hosts the works of Refik Anadol and Ethem Onur Bilgic.

Yenilikhane, the innovation center put into operation by Mey | Diageo with an investment of 18 million TL during the pandemic, brings the industry professionals together with the innovative art as well as the craft products, which are the first in Turkey, and the new scientific studies. In Yenilikhane, the efforts of the company's expert staff, who is working on the formulations of new innovation products, are accompanied by the magnificent visual work by the artist Refik Anadol, who creates new generation works with artificial intelligence, and animated sketches by the famous illustrator Ethem Onur Bilgic. The fascinating work of Refik Anadol, which is added to the art archive of Mey | Diageo through the agency of Pilevneli Gallery, and which is selected specially for Yenilikhane and supported by mapping technology, creates a three-dimensional kinetic and architectonic space in a room designed as a composition with a mirror installation. The sketches drawn by Ethem Onur Bilgic and representing the brands of the company have been animated by Baran Baran and adorns the walls of the digital "hall of brands".

New Journey project

The Yeni Yolculuk (New Journey) project, which has been brought into life in August 2021, involves a special event at Alasehir Plant, the largest raki production plant in Turkey, where the history and the production process of raki, innovation and craft production activities, as well as the 'Raki Sensory Wheel' and aroma profiles, are explained. The recipes of craft raki are developed through the trials performed in two miniature stills, which are 500-liter versions of the 5000-liter regular raki production stills at 1/10 scale. The stills were named after the mothers of Duygu Beypinar and Koray Ozcan, the company's team leaders in charge of innovation and quality.

Sensory Wheel being a first

At the end of the two-year study carried out by Mey|Diageo in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Turgut Cabaroglu and Dr. Faculty Member Merve Darici from Cukurova University, who were in charge of Quality, Tech and Innovation, the aroma profiles and sensory wheel of raki were identified. Upon publication of the article on this study in Foods, which is the world's leading peer-reviewed food science journal, the sensory wheel of raki was included in the international literature and was scientifically registered.

50% water savings in vineyards

Founded in 2004 following privatization of the alcoholic beverages department of Tekel, Mey has prioritized continuity, quality and innovation since then. The company operates in accordance with international methods and standards with its expert staff of 40 people in its laboratories, head office and central laboratory units in 9 different locations, in order to maintain quality standards. Setting goals for the sustainability of water reserves in Alasehir, the company has built an infrastructure on an area of 60 hectares in the Sahyar region, in order to ensure drip irrigation to improve the quality of the products in the vineyards of farmers, to increase the yield and the income of the grape growers. Thanks to the project, about 50 percent of the water was saved, and 15.192 m3 of water was recovered through the infrastructure built. The project aims to recover 40 thousand cubic meters of water next year. In this way, the total amount of water to be recovered will be approximately equal to the volume of 16.2 olympic pools.