Turkey
Şirince
Grandmothers sell peach wine from doorsteps in a Greek hill village abandoned in 1923.
A grandmother sits on a stone step, a tray of unlabelled bottles at her feet — peach wine, blackberry wine, melon wine. You taste three for free and buy two. Behind her, a Greek Orthodox village climbs the hillside in terraces of stone and tile, its inhabitants gone since 1923, replaced by Turks from Thessaloniki who brought different prayers to the same houses.
Şirince is a hilltop village 8 kilometres above the ancient city of Ephesus in western Turkey. Its Greek Orthodox inhabitants were relocated during the 1923 population exchange, and the village was resettled by Turkish families from northern Greece. The original name, Çirkince ('ugly'), was reportedly chosen to deter Ottoman tax collectors. Two Greek churches survive, the lower one retaining painted ceiling fragments. Today, Şirince is known for its fruit wines — peach, blackberry, mulberry, pomegranate — made from local harvests and sold from doorsteps throughout the village.
Couple
Wine tasting from doorsteps, garden restaurants with Aegean views, and the bittersweet layering of two cultures in one village — Şirince is a half-day extension to Ephesus that delivers a completely different emotional register.
Family
Children enjoy the village's steep lanes and the novelty of tasting fruit wines (non-alcoholic versions available). The connection to nearby Ephesus makes it a natural second stop on a day of Aegean history.
- The village was originally called Çirkince ('ugly') — legend says to deter Ottoman tax collectors.
- Fruit wines are made from every local harvest: peach, blackberry, mulberry, melon, even pomegranate.
- The hilltop location, 8km above Selçuk, offers views across the plain where Ephesus once met the sea.
- Two Greek Orthodox churches survive: the lower one (St John the Baptist) retains painted ceiling fragments.
Fruit wines — peach, blackberry, melon — poured from hand-labelled bottles at every doorstep.
Herb böreks fried in olive oil at garden restaurants with views across the Aegean foothills.
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