2013 Suvla Grenache Noir
I finally found the Suvla store in Cihangir which is both good and bad. Good because the store carries all of Suvla’s wines; bad because I don’t have a steady income and Suvla wines are not inexpensive; but that’s not going to stop me from buying them!
So let’s start with the description on the bottle: “Suvla Grenache Noir 2013 has the color of bright ruby red with purple nuances. The nose is an explosion of fruity and spicy aromas. The vibrating hints of ripe black cherry, mulberry, fig and blackberry are woven into a background of notes of black pepper, olive, thyme, and oregano. The well-balance body has a supple and elegant structure and exhibits a rich fragrance, blooming in the palate with fruity and spicy hints.”
I really, really wanted to like this one. For one thing; ‘Grenache Noir’ is a super sexy name. “Is that Merlot you’re drinking? Tsch. Oh 
me? I’m drinking Suvla Grenache Noir. And Humphrey Bogart is coming over later.”
Also, explosion of fruity aromas in this Suvla Grenache Noir? Check. The glass was sitting at the opposite end of my, admittedly small, table and I could still smell it. For me though, it fell apart after the nose. I tried to place what I was tasting: black pepper? oregano? mulberry? blackberry? In the end though, I couldn’t taste the fruit for the herbs and that just did not flip my Twinkie, as a good friend of mine says. My neighbor had some and she liked it though.
At only 40-something TL a bottle, the Suvla Grenache Noir is one of the vineyard’s more affordable wines which means I will probably try it again. Who knows, maybe a better food combination will make it come alive for me. Here’s to hoping because I still really want to like this one!