Examination of the viticulture and wine heritage of Anatolia: A route proposal for the Aegean Region

Wine is a beverage that has had a social and cultural value since the beginning of human history. This importance has had a direct impact on humanity's world of belief, world of art, commercial life and daily life. Wine, which is far more than just an intoxicating beverage, has begun to be seen in different countries of the world as a legacy of those countries and humanity in general. In this context, wine-related heritage was seen as a subject worth protecting and various steps were taken to protect the wine heritage. The fact that historical wine regions have been taken under protection by various institutions, especially Unesco, can be given as an example to these breakthroughs. It is important to realize such a breakthrough in our country, which has a deep-rooted wine heritage. In this study, Anatolia's wine history will be examined starting from the earliest evidence and the wine heritage of our country will be examined on this occasion. Then, the wine heritage areas under protection in the world will be examined. Finally, a wine heritage route will be proposed on the Aegean Region, which is very rich in wine heritage in our country. In the research, the semi-structured interview technique was used, and MAXQDA 2022 qualitative data analysis programme was used for data analysis. The study group was determined with purposive sampling method and the criterion sampling technique. The study was conducted between September 10 and October 9, 2023, with 8 people from various disciplines who live in different cities and who have experience and interest in viticulture and wine. In this study, which researched whether viticulture and wine heritage should be considered should be considered as an element of cultural heritage and whether it is possible or not to create a route in the Aegean Region, it has been concluded that there is a lack of such a route and that it is necessary to promote the viticulture and wine heritage. Keywords: Wine Heritage, Wine, Wine History, Wine Heritage Route