Umay Çeviker is a WSET trained architect and a wine enthusiast who has been holding thematic tastings every month for 19 years with his tasting group in Ankara. He has published more than 4.000 tasting notes, mostly of Turkish wines, on the Cellar Tracker portal. He contributed to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson's The World Atlas of Wine in its 7th and 8th editions, to the Wine Grapes of Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz, and to the 4th edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine on Turkey. Many of his articles have been published on Jancisrobinson.com. In 2015, he won the Geoffrey Roberts Award under the auspices of The Vintners' Company for supporting emerging wine regions. This project, whose aim is to reveal Turkey's disappearing vineyards, grape varieties and regions; is supported today with the Yaban Kolektif initiative he co-founded. He is among the founding members of the Heritage Vines of Turkey initiative, which was implemented for the same purpose. He is a regional ambassador for Turkey on behalf of the Old Vine Conference, which was initiated under the leadership of Sarah Abbott MW and whose aim is to draw attention to old grapevines and vines. He is also a member of Slow Food and Slow Wine Coalition.