Owner of Chamlija, one of the top wineries in Türkiye, Professionnel du Vin Mustafa Camlica joined the Chaîne in 2016.

He was born in Eastern Thrace in Türkiye; his family having emigrated there from Bulgaria in 1935. They have been farming there ever since. However, Mustafa’s career started at the Turkish Ministry of Finance as an Inspector of Finance. During this period, he participated in a Master of Science programme (Accounting and Finance) at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Ten years later, he joined Pricewaterhouse as a Tax Senior Manager, then, after two years, he transferred to Arthur Andersen as Tax Partner and later became the Head of Tax. When Arthur Andersen collapsed in 2002 due to the Enron scandal, Mustafa joined Ernst &Young as Tax Leader. He was held several regional positions there. Finally, he became Ernst &Young’s Country Leader for Türkiye eventually retiring in 2016.

During 2002-2008 he was heavily involved in fine wine investments due to the restrictions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 as this type of investments are out of scope of the Act. [Ed. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations.]

In 2006, Mustafa decided to invest in viticulture. Together with his wife and brother in 2007 he established a private investment company with the first vineyards established in 2008. In 2011 they started a wine business which currently produces 2,500 hectolitres of wine per annum (circa 330,000 bottles) from the 100 hectares of vineyards they own.

All the Chamlija vineyards are located in Kirklareli Province. The Bulgarian name of Kirklareli was Lozengrad, which means “The city of vines”. The plantings are some of the highest density in the Balkans and Türkiye, ranging from 5,000 to 6,666 vines per hectare, with some vineyards even at 10,000! The aim of high-density planting is to enhance quality and encourage deep root systems to express the full potential of the terroir.

The Strandja Massif has a dominant effect on the vineyard soils and climates. Located in the north-west part of Türkiye, the massif is bounded by the Thrace basin to the south, the Istanbul Zone to the east and the Black Sea to the north. It is roughly a NW-SE trending mountain belt, circa 200 km long and 90 km wide.

Mustafa believes their Strandja terroir is one of the best in the world. They do not irrigate, nor do they use herbicides. It is a low input viticulture practice. Similarly, the winemaking practice is low intervention. They do not use sulphur at the beginning of winemaking, neither do they fine nor filter their red wines.

Chamlija
Büyükkarıştıran
Lüleburgaz District
Kırklareli Province

Web: chamlija-wine.com
Tel: +9 (0)288 436 13 49