Greek wine Tsantalis in Turkish market
By Wine Atlas, Friday 25 January 2008 :: Wine - Greece :: #149 :: rss
Greek wine label Tsantalis makes an inconspicuous entry in Turkey's market in November. Its distributors say in the one month since Tsantalis has been available on the Turkish market they have nearly reached their sales target
One of Greece's household names in wine, Tsantalis, entered the Turkish market last November, becoming the first wine from the neighboring country available in Turkey.
The entrepreneurial move into the domain of wine sales, highly regulated and taxed in Turkey, started when one of Hatzianastas' co-workers asked a rhetorical question. He asked me could we sell Greek wines in Turkey?' said Hatzianastas. The distributor originally thought of bringing a unique taste to Turkey, Retsina, a wine with a strong resin taste. Interested in the Turkish market, Tsantalis agreed.
As Turkey's wine industry is trying to make its wines more palatable to both tastes and pockets with the production of cheaper bottles of better tasting wine, keeping the prices down was a challenge for Hatzianastas and his partners. It took 15 months for the wine to get state approval and the wines that are very affordable in Greece received a 189 percent price increase after they cleared customs. In the end, Halkidiki (one of the Tsantalis labels) was inexpensive compared to other imported wines at YTL 20 after taxes, said Hatzianastas.Continue reading: turkishdailynews.com.tr
