Grape Guide
Emir
WhiteEmir is a pale, high-acid white grape from the volcanic highlands of Cappadocia in central Turkey, where it is the leading white variety of Nevşehir and Niğde provinces. It makes light, fresh, mineral-leaning wines, both still and sparkling, that are best drunk young. Plantings are small, about 92 hectares in 2010, yet it ranks among Turkey's most important white grapes.
Key characteristics
- Native to Cappadocia (Kapadokya) in central Turkey; no parentage has been established
- Grown mainly at roughly 900 to 1,200 m on poor, sandy, volcanic soils
- Late ripening in its continental highland setting
- Yields well, yet the bunches are highly prone to botrytis rot
- About 92 hectares planted in 2010, with reported figures near 89 hectares for 2016
Typical flavors
Major regions
Cappadocia (Kapadokya) · Nevşehir Province · Niğde Province · Ürgüp district · Central Anatolia
Also known as
Aküzüm · White Emir
Emir is a light-skinned grape that gives pale wines with a greenish cast, delicate aromatics and brisk acidity. Most examples are light to medium in body, with orchard and citrus fruit set against a stony, sometimes mineral-scented backbone. The wines show best when young and fresh, and the grape does not reward heavy handling in the cellar.
It is the principal white variety in the Cappadocian provinces of Nevşehir and Niğde, and it sits alongside Narince as one of the two most significant white grapes in Turkey, even though its vineyard area is modest. It is made as a varietal still wine, as the base for sparkling wine, and as a blending partner for Narince or Sultaniye. Its main commercial value lies in its freshness: high acidity from cool highland nights gives it a profile unlike the broader, lower-acid whites of the Aegean coast.
Emir is an indigenous Turkish variety that takes its name from Kapadokya (Cappadocia), the volcanic plateau of central Anatolia where it has long been grown. The word emir is a Turkish term for a ruler or commander, and the grape is also known as Aküzüm and White Emir. Popular accounts push its history back to antiquity, but no firm documentation supports a date, and those claims are best treated as folklore.
No parentage has been established. Published DNA work on Turkish germplasm has concentrated on other regions, and no parent-offspring or sibling relationship has been reported that links Emir to a known cultivar, so it should be regarded as a local landrace of unknown ancestry rather than a cross of identified varieties.
Its spread has remained local. The grape stayed within the Cappadocian provinces of Nevşehir and Niğde, tied to high, cool vineyards, and later commercial wineries in the Ürgüp area brought it into bottled still and sparkling wine. Some producers have tried it outside the continental volcanic highlands, with limited success, which helps explain why plantings have stayed small: about 92 hectares in 2010, with a figure near 89 hectares reported for 2016.
Emir is suited to continental climates with hot days, cold winters and wide day-to-night temperature swings. It does best at altitude, typically between about 900 and 1,200 m, although some accounts place vineyards up to 1,500 m, on poor sandy and volcanic soils that include decomposed tuff and some limestone. In these conditions it ripens late and retains high natural acidity. Yields can be generous, so crop control matters for concentration. Its main weakness is a very high susceptibility to botrytis bunch rot, which makes canopy management, airflow and careful harvest timing important in damp autumns. The berries are medium-sized and greenish-yellow, borne in conical clusters.
Still Emir has a pale colour with a greenish tinge, and it is delicate, fresh and light to medium in body. Producers usually ferment it in stainless steel and bottle it early, since the variety copes poorly with oak or malolactic fermentation; the wine is at its best within a year or two of harvest. Citrus, green apple and herbal notes lead, at times with a stony or mineral scent.
High natural acidity and modest alcohol also make it a good fit for sparkling wine, and Cappadocia produces sparkling Emir brut. Blending is common: Narince or Sultaniye is often added to give structure or softness. Turasan and Kocabağ varietal bottlings are among the best known, and Kavaklıdere is another long-established name that has worked with the variety.
Where it grows
Nevşehir
At the centre of Cappadocia, this province is where Emir is most at home and ranks as the top white grape. In the vicinity of Ürgüp, Kocabağ and Turasan, among other wineries, bottle both still and sparkling versions grown at around 1,000 m or higher.
Niğde
Emir is again the main white variety here. Vineyards sit on elevated volcanic plateau land, and the cold winters together with a sharp swing between day and night temperatures preserve the grape's acidity.
Central Anatolia
Within the region's high-altitude vineyards, Emir stands out as a signature white. Attempts to establish it outside the continental volcanic highlands have given limited results.
Turkey overall
Vineyard area is small, roughly 92 hectares in 2010 and a reported figure close to 89 hectares for 2016. Even so, Emir and Narince are the two white varieties that count most in Turkey. Kavaklıdere, Kocabağ and Turasan are among the producers working with it.