Mesashuna: Four Siblings, Buried Clay, and the Eastern Black Sea

Nothing in. Nothing out. 2,000 bottles a year from buried clay at the edge of two wine worlds.

Nothing in, nothing out. The first officially licensed winery in Türkiye's Eastern Black Sea is run by four siblings using clay vessels buried underground. 2,000 bottles a year. No yeast, no enzymes, no fining, no filtering.

Category: producer · 7 min read · Published 2026-06-28 · Altevin Blog

• First officially licensed winery in Türkiye's Eastern Black Sea region
• Founded by four siblings — Me(lek), Sa(fiye), Shu(le), Na(zım) — in Borçka, Artvin
• All wines made in buried qvevri clay vessels with zero additions whatsoever
• No yeast, no enzymes, no fining, no filtering — nothing in, nothing out
• Just 2,000 bottles produced per year of Saperavi and Rkatsiteli
• Located on the Türkiye-Georgia border, where two ancient wine cultures meet

Four siblings, one name

Mesashuna is the first officially licensed winery in Türkiye's Eastern Black Sea region. The name is made from the first syllables of four siblings: Me(lek), Sa(fiye), Shu(le), and Na(zım). Four people. One winery. A single, uncompromising method.

The siblings chose to build their winery in Borçka, in the Artvin province — a humid, mountainous district on Türkiye's border with Georgia. This is not obvious wine country by any modern standard. But it is precisely the intersection of two ancient wine cultures: the Anatolian and the Georgian. The choice of location was deliberate.

Qvevri: 8,000 years of buried winemaking

Every wine at Mesashuna is made in qvevri — large clay vessels buried underground, a winemaking tradition documented in Georgia for over 8,000 years. The qvevri method maintains a stable temperature during fermentation, allows gentle oxygen exchange through the porous clay, and enables long skin maceration without mechanical intervention.

Winemaker Yusuf Arifağaoğlu fills the qvevri to 70%, adds sun-dried stems (10–20% depending on the variety) on day two, performs punch-downs four times daily for the first week, then seals the vessel under glass and leaves it undisturbed for 4½ months. The wine is racked twice. Bottled in June. Released after three months of bottle rest. Nothing in. Nothing out.

The wines: Saperavi and Rkatsiteli

Mesashuna works with two Georgian heritage grapes grown on the Turkish-Georgian frontier: Saperavi (deep red, structured, dark fruit and mineral) and Rkatsiteli (amber wine, skin-contact, dried apricot, honey, tea). Both are vinified identically — qvevri, minimal sulfur, no additions whatsoever.

Production is just 2,000 bottles per year. This is a winery where scarcity is structural rather than manufactured. Each bottle carries the weight of a method, a place, and a family who chose to do something extraordinary when they could have done something ordinary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a qvevri and why does Mesashuna use them?

A qvevri is a large clay vessel buried underground, used for winemaking in Georgia for over 8,000 years. Buried clay maintains stable fermentation temperature and allows gentle oxygen exchange without mechanical intervention — ideal for natural winemaking.

What does "nothing in, nothing out" mean?

No added yeasts, enzymes, fining agents, or filtering. Nothing added to the wine, nothing removed from it. It ferments and clarifies on its own terms.

Why is Mesashuna located in Artvin near the Georgian border?

Artvin is where two of the world's oldest wine cultures meet. The siblings deliberately chose this location to grow Georgian heritage grapes — Saperavi and Rkatsiteli — in soil and climate that mirrors their Georgian homeland.

How many bottles does Mesashuna produce per year?

Just 2,000 bottles of two wines: Saperavi 2024 and Rkatsiteli 2024. Scarcity here is structural, not marketing.