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October 2020

Home2020 (Page 5)

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Öküzgözü Şarapçılık outside Izmir is one of those curious cases we see occasionally here. It is both a bulk and a boutique winery. The bulk wine generally gets shipped straight off to meyhanes and wedding halls. Rarely, if ever, can you find it commercially. Rarely, if ever, would you want to .  A few years ago winery owner Rıfat Şekerdil turned his attention towards a more quality-driven approach to winemaking. With the bulk side of the winery generating enough profit to cover all the winery's operations, Şekerdil set aside his better vineyards to to grow better fruit. In the winery, he employed gentler methods and invested in oak barrels

By 0Sweet Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  We all know Sultaniye; whether or not we actually know we do! In America we're more likely to refer to it as "Sultana" and it means raisins to us, not wine. Because few associate Turkey with wine, making the leap to think of it as a grape producer is almost as difficult. But it is, and a major one at that. In fact for Turkey we should talk first about grape production, then wine. The country is the world's sixth largest producer of grapes. However, a mere 3% gets used for wine and rakı. Most grapes are consumed fresh, made into pekmez (grape molasses), or raisins. For the

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Recently I participated in the #WinePW group's #MerlotMe conversation. You can read all about that here. I thought that would be the end of #Merlober for me. However, reading about the food and wine pairings the rest of the group did inspired me to keep going! I immediately went into my wine room to see if I had any more Merlot wines and was excited to see that I did indeed! One wine I had came from Uçmakdere-based winery Firuze. If you're not familiar with Uçmakdere or Firuze I completely understand. But (if you're local) you really should look into getting some wine from Firuze! This family winery located

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Based in the coastal town of Alaçatı south of Izmir, Gemici Family Wines/Alaçatı Şarapçılık makes wine on a small scale. In this charming little city along the Aegean Sea, the equally charming Olçay Gemici carefully vinifies his grapes in older traditional ways. For him this means anything from spontaneous fermentation to blending in small measures of sakız in his wine. Olçay uses both native and international grapes for his wine. With Sultaniye and Öküzgözü to Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, and Merlot to play with, he creates both varietals and blends.  When I visited his shop in Alaçatı a couple years ago, one of the wines I purchased was the Aya Katrina

By 0European Wines, Rest of the World, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  While probably half the wines I buy in Greece invariably end up being Assyrtiko, or Assyrtiko-lead blends, I am always on the lookout for new (to me) grapes. Last year at a wine festival in Athens I tasted a 100% Athiri. Could I find it anywhere to buy? No of course not. Not on that or any subsequent trip. I did, however, get my hands on another grape often blended with Assyrtiko, Aidani. Aidani One of Greece's many indigenous white grapes, Aidani grows mainly in the Greek islands, particularly the Cyclades and Rhodes. Finding it on its own is a rarity. Most often, Aidani gets blended with Assyrtiko as part

By 1Red Wine, Sweet Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  This month the #WinePW group is taking advantage of October being #MerlotMe month. See the original invitation from Jeff at Food Wine Click! here. I have been unaccountably excited about this theme. For years I maintained a strong 'no Merlot' policy but have really come to appreciate this grape. And understand my previous prejudice for what it was: experience with bad wine. This theme also makes it easy for me to participate in the discussion with my usual raison d'être: Turkish wine. We have a lot of Merlot in Turkey due to the general popularity of the Bordeaux varieties. Like every other wine producing country, we have really good Merlot,

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Summer is waning away here in Istanbul. While the forecast promises warmer days again, we're currently experiencing temperature drops and overcast skies. So while we still have intermittent sun I will continue to enjoy summer white wines. For me, the best Turkish summer wines often come from the Bornova Misketi grape. For a while I thought I'd exhausted all the examples of Bornova Misketi. But then I found Perdix. Perdix is a newly opened winery in the Aegean growing region and a newcomer to the Urla Bağ Yolu (Urla Wine Route). I have not yet had the chance to visit but going by the winery's Instagram page, they have

By 0Articles, Red Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine

  I am so excited to begin collaborating with The Vintner Project as a contributor to their fantastic site. It's an honor to have something published alongside these knowledgeable, dedicated, and enthusiastic wine experts! And not only did I get a piece published, but one that features the amazing maps and infopgraphics made by the talented Empathia Creative! Turkish Wine 101 The most common question I get about Turkish wine is an incredulous “Turkey makes wine?” Yes, it does! Unintentionally, Turkish wine remains a well-kept secret; but one well worth discovering. To help you do so, I offer a little primer on wine in Turkey. Modern Turkey is the product of thousands

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Kayseri has developed a reputation for having some great food in Turkey. Manti - the tiny yogurt-topped Turkish ravioli - comes from here. Kayseri also grows most of Turkey's apricots. You may also know it as the city that hosts one of the two airports you can fly into to visit Cappadocia. But wine? Not so much. And yet! If you leave the massive expressway that runs through the area and take a bumpy drive away from "civilization" you trade a panorama of gas stations and whizzing cars for a seemingly secret land of trees and greenery. Here, tucked away in the verdant expanse of countryside sits one of my

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