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September 2020

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By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Nestled in a bowl-like cradle in mountainous Bodrum and nearly lost in the riotous greenery of the surrounding agriculture grow vines of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Shiraz, and Zinfandel. This is Garova Vineyards. Despite being wheelchair-bound, owner Mehmet Vuran manages his 2.3 hectares himself. He's also the winemaker. Vuran turns out between 10,000 and 15,000 bottles a year. Some grapes he cultivates himself on his property (the Shiraz and Petit Verdot in question here included). He also brings in Öküzgözü grapes from the Denizli Plateau. In 2016 he converted to spontaneous fermentation for all the grapes from his vineyards; trusting that the care he gives the grapes on the

By 0Sparkling Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Last Saturday I hosted another Turkish wine Taste Along. In addition to having a wee handful of people physically present with me, tasters joined us online from Istanbul, Athens, London, DC, and Las Vegas. Cheers especially to those in Vegas who were easting breakfast and drinking their morning cuppas along with the wine! When I first started in Turkish wine there were really were only what I call the Big Six for grapes. Three white grapes and three black grapes; finding wine made from a seventh Turkish grape was like finding a unicorn. However, even though now winemakers here have greatly expanded both their and our horizon with more

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Wine writer turned winery owner Şeyla Ergenekon and winemaker husband Çağatay cultivate organic grapes on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There they concentrate on French varieties including two of the most popular and widely planted grapes in Turkey: Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Ergenekon produces varietal wines of each of these grapes under the label Singularis. The Regius brings together these two grapes for the winery’s trifecta of premium labels. Ergenekon Regius 2013 Tasting Notes For the Regius, Çağatay aged his Cabernet and Syrah in a combination of French and American oak for 16 months. In Turkey, where the temptation to use lots and lots of new oak has prevailed for years, Çağatay's deftness

By 1Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Hailing from some of Turkey's most easterly vineyards in Elazığ, Öküzgözü is the number one planted wine grape in Turkey. As demonstrated in my online Öküzgözü taste along, there is no shortage to wines made with this grape. Commonly found as a varietal wine but blends are also popular. Öküzgözü traditional blending partner has been the ultra tannic Boğazkere. However, we're seeing more and more blends that include more than Boğazkere or that don't include it at all. Öküzgözü's naturally high acidity makes it a great foil for any number of grapes, both domestic and international.  Diren Öküzgözü Boğazkere, 2017 Diren, the only Black Sea region winery in Turkey, sources its Öküzgözü

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  This month the #winophiles are exploring the Côtes du Rhône. You can view the preview here. Originally I was going to pass on this one. The imported cost of quality Côtes du Rhône wines generally being out of my price range. However, by invitation of this month's host Camilla etc etc, I'm taking a slightly different approach to the topic. While the others look at the Côtes du Rhône in France; I'm looking at its influence on Turkish wine. When the modern Turkish wine industry kicked off in the 1930's and 40's it looked to Europe for inspiration, know-how, and grapes. As a result we have a lot of

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I stumbled across Kayra's Versus Viognier some years ago in a charming Greek fish restaurant here in Istanbul. Despite the recent surge of Viognier's popularity in Turkey, Kayra's remains my favorite. Kayra uses Viognier not only in a varietal wine but also in several blends. The Rhone-like Versus Syrah Viognier is one of my very favorite red wines in Turkey. The Versus line has a third Viognier wine; this one a Chardonnay-driven blend. I've seen this one around quite a lot but have avoided it for years now. Literally for years. To my own detriment it seems! Kayra Versus Chardonnay Viognier 2013 Tasting Notes The wine was an intense lemon color

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  I generally try to bring attention to wineries in Turkey that champion native grapes. However, some of the wineries here that focus on international varieties are too good to ignore. One of my favorites is Chateau Nuzun. Not only does the winery turn out well-crafted and delicious wines; it does so with sustainable practices and utter charm. [caption id="attachment_11576" align="alignright" width="501"] Chateau Nuzun vineyards-protecting Öküzgözü grapes from bees[/caption] Owner Nazan Uzun lends not only her name to the winery (N. + Uzun = Nuzun) but also her humor and strength of character. I love meeting with Nazan. She always has a huge smile and her energy and presence make her

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  For this month's #WinePW, host Gwendolyn from Wine Predator has invited us all to Re/Consider Harvest: How will global warming change what we eat, drink, grow? You can view the original invitation here. Whether or not you wrote about it, if you're interested, join the conversation on Twitter on Saturday, September 12 at 8am Pacific/11am Eastern/10am Central/6pm Istanbul by following the #WinePW hashtag. While climate change is as much an issue in Turkey as anywhere else, my three jobs got a little out of control this last month and I wasn't able to badger harvest/climate change information out of any of my wineries. However, as an old hand at

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I've been holding onto my notes of these two Saranta Chateau Murou Chardonnay wines for a while now. My hope was that I could compare more than two vintages but I haven't seen any Chardonnay from Saranta past 2016! Which really just bums me out because these are beautiful wines. So the 2015 and 2016 it is. We know I don't like oak in my white wine and Chardonnay always worries me. Turkey got caught in the same too much new oak trap that many New World winemakers got caught in. Many of them have clawed their out in the last few years though. Saranta has a very talented

By 1Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Mersin, along Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast, brings to mind beaches and resorts. Not so much wine. And to be fair, only a very few commercial wineries operate in this area. One, Selefkia Wines, has long been more of a nebulous idea in my mind rather than a reality. However, just this summer, the winery began selling its wines in Istanbul and they are the hot new thing for a lot of wine lovers here. My interest in Selefkia stems from its work with two underappreciated Turkish grapes: Patkara and Ak Üzüm. Ak Üzüm doesn't pop up in a lot of wines here. The first time I heard about it was