Inspired by his friend Mr. Arnaud, a restaurant owner and distinguished proprietor of Chateau Cabrieres and Chateau Maucoil in the Châteauneuf-du Pape region in France, Barbare Vineyards tale begins in 2000. With a new century, Can Topsakal decided to join the exciting world of winemaking after completing his university education in France.
His quest to find the most suitable soil and microclimate for his vineyards took him on a journey from Çeşme in the Aegean region to Tekirdağ in the Thrace region in Turkey. Subsequently, Topsakal purchased 230 acres of land in Tekirdağ to establish Barbare Vineyards to set forth on making his dream a reality. Together with Xavier Vignon, a prominent oenologist and wine consultant for numerous Chateau Wineries in France, they started building the winery we are today.
With a philosophy of “giving back earth, what we have taken from the earth”, we do organic, sustainable, and biodynamic agriculture. Barbare Vineyards has a production team consisting of 10 experts in their fields. Additionally, approximately 60 women seasonal workers are temporarily hired to prune, bond, retrench and harvest the grapes starting from September. As a result, Barbare Vineyards has generated new job opportunities for the community in the region.
Barbare's most important ideology and conviction is “to give back to the soil what it has taken” and as a result, is dedicated to cultivating the high quality grapes as a result of organic farming. To endorse this commitment, Barbare applied to Ecocert, the most esteemed organization to receive organic certification. Ecocert was established in France in 1991 and is an independent inspection and certification body recognizing and certifying organic farming and has been a benchmark in organic certification worldwide ever since. Ecocert evaluates the entire production chain – from the process and products ingredients, to the use of top quality ecological resources to eco-friendly standards. Presently, there are only 15,000 products that have been endorsed with Ecocert certification and Barbare Wines is proud to be a member of this group.