Melen family has been making wine since before the foundation of the Republic. Their grandfather, known as “Matyoz Ahmet” by his friends, was the one who built the very winery they use today from the ground up. Hoşköy, where it is located, was an area where both Greeks and Ottoman Turks lived together. Matyoz Ahmet and his Greek friend Şimo formed the tradition of the land into a craft. They continued to be friends and partners at the winery. Starting out with raki production, the two friends were then separated as part of the population exchange. When the Republic was founded, raki production was put under the Tekel subsidiary. Afterwards, the Çetintaş family started winemaking. In the following years, Hüseyin Çetintaş, son of Ahmet Çetintaş, finished his college education in Istanbul and took over the business.
Melen Winery is located in Hoşköy by the sea side. The production continues where their grandfather Ahmet Çetintaş began his wine making adventure in the 1920s. French oak barrels, modern equipment and chrome tanks have now replaced the concrete storage, but the stone walls and roofing have been kept to retain the building's architectural integrity.
Melen’s work with its vine yards is like the work of the ancient potters who transformed worthless pieces of clay into works of art, and now not just the vineyards, but Melen too, is slowly bringing the ruined Monastery back to life. The vine yard is on the breezy side of the hill facing the sea and protected from the north by the Ganohora Mountains at a height of 945 metres. The vine yard, at 200 metres, slopes towards the sea which is some 600 metres away. As a result the days are hot and sunny and the nights are cool and breezy. The vines grow in the stony, gritty, dry soil of the old monastery gardens and the 200,000 sq. metre area has been divided into four. Each area grows a single variety of a superior clone and these are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo, Shiraz, Papazkarasi, Okuzgozu, Semillion, Gamay. The vine yard is planted densely, in order to produce the highest quality grapes. Forcing the vineyard to produce a high quality crop,causes each vine stock to yield a mere 1 kg of grapes each year, which corresponds to just one bottle of wine.
