The Base Where Grape and Aniseed Meet

Recently, I had the opportunity to see the largest spirits production plants of Mey|Diageo in Alasehir. 'Yenilikhane', the innovation center was put into operation during the pandemic with an investment of 18 million TL. While the expert staff was working on the new product formulations, a structure intertwined with art was not forgotten. For example, a special area was created for a magnificent visual work by the famous artist Refik Anadol for Yenilikhane. Firstly, I would like to give some brief information provided by the experts:

Substantial Water Savings

An infrastructure for drip irrigation was established on an area of 60 hectares in Sahyar region in order to increase the product quality, yield, and income of the farmer in the vineyards. Thanks to the project, which is available for any farmer who wishes to participate, approximately 50 percent savings were achieved in the amount of water used. 15 thousand 192 cubic meters of water was recovered. The target for next year is 40 thousand cubic meters. The total amount of water to be recovered will be approximately equal to the volume of 16.2 olympic pools.

The Largest Plant

The formulations of Turkey's first craft raki were developed at the micro-facility in the Alasehir plant. Craft, which is used to describe the products that are subject to the production processes requiring know-how, mastery and patience, has been used in the raki category for the first time. The Yeni Yolculuk (New Journey) Project involves a special sense of taste 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. Investing in order to transfer the 500-year journey of raki to the future generations, Mey|Diageo develops new product formulations with two 500-liter copper stills in Yenilikhane. The stills were named after the mothers of Saadet and Reyhan, the company's team leaders in charge of innovation and quality. Alasehir is very important for raki production in terms of raw materials. The aniseed is also grown in the Western Anatolia, where Sultaniye grapes are grown and stored. Alasehir is the place where these two miraculous products meet. Established in 1995 for suma production, the plant of Mey in Alasehir has 67 stills of 5 thousand liters each.

Highlights

Everyone who hosted us, guided us and provided information was a master of their job. (Many thanks to our host Mey|Diageo and Zarakol Iletisim who organized the tour.) Two persons paid my attention the most. The first one is Levent Komur, General Manager at Mey|Diageo. Komur, who is a 52-year-old industrial engineer graduated from the Bosporus University, started to work at Mey in 2012, and he has been serving as the General Manager for five years. He could hardly stand still, he was excited at every stage of the tour. The second name, on the other hand, is Koray Ozcan who is a 36-year-old food engineer. He usually explained the stages of production. I was curious about the CV of Ozcan, Senior Technical and Innovation Manager, who has signed on innovations: He graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture of Cukurova University. He has an undergraduate thesis on aniseed. He continues his doctoral studies and researches on raki. While he was a student, he became an intern at Mey Icki, and he held various positions for 12 years. He continues his researches, developments and innovation studies in order to transfer raki to the future generations.

Contribution to the Manufacturer

I provided information from the Alasehir base of Mey|Diageo. The Special Consumption Tax and VAT, and as a result, the price of the products here is a different issue. 35 women and 225 men work at Alasehir plant. 80-90 thousand tons of fresh grapes, amounting to approximately 300 million TL, and 8-10 thousand tons of raisins, amounting to approximately 16 million TL, are purchased from local producers. May it be easy for everyone!