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March 2023

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By 0European Wines, Red Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  This month, Katarina of Grapevine Adventures has invited the #ItalianFWT group to explore the wines of Calabria and Sardegna. Check out her invitation here. Of these two southern regions, I chose to focus on Sardegna as I was lucky enough recently to get my hands on two wines.  I was really hoping I could get both wines to pair with the same dishes. A little bit of a challenge as I had both a white and a red. It didn't work out so well for the red. Something I saw coming but barreled into (haha pun) anyway. The "herb garden" chicken, boiled chicken marinated overnight in olive oil and lots

By 0European Wines, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I can't believe my visit to Crete was so long ago now. I went a few Decembers ago for a friend's 40th birthday. According to Unraveling Wine, we had the dubious luck to experience the worst winter weather she's had in her entire time there. Also an earthquake.  Despite that, I made many amazing wine discoveries. One of my favorites - Thrapsathiri.  [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="274"] photo from Wines of Greece[/caption] Thrapsathiri / Θραψαθήρι While Vidiano holds the spot as the white grape on Crete, Thrapsathiri quickly gaining popularity. Highly drought resistant, it does well in the hottest areas of the island. High yields lead to poor fruit and wines so producers

By 1Articles, Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Papazkarası has been staging a quiet take over. When I first discovered the grape, maybe you could find two or three wines. Now, this ancient blue-black grape variety native to Turkey's upper Thrace abounds and wineries are releasing not just red wines, but also rosés and blanc de noir wines. The name Papazkarası roughly translates to "black of the priest (or) pope". In Greece, the variety is registered as "Kara Papas", although little, if any, Papazkarası wine is produced there. In Turkey, the spelling varies between Papazkarası (with a 'z') and Papaskarası (with an 's'). You can read more about the here! Now that there are so many of these wines

By 1Amber Wine, Orange Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Amber wine has quietly existed in Turkey for a number of years with previously off the radar, small producers like Gelveri. Then, a few well-placed and larger name wineries like Chamlija, Paşaeli, and Kastro Tireli released skin contact wines. In many ways, the amber boom here resembles the rosé explosion. Sure, there's always been rosé. But then a handful of years ago everyone started making it (whether or not they personally like it) because that was the selling trend. And so it seems, amber follows in the wake of pink.  Despite the work from Mediterranean wineries like Tasheli and Selefkia, Göküzüm still flies largely un-talked about. A pity, in

By 0Amber Wine, European Wines, Orange Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Markogianni was not a winery with which I was familiar. A friend recommended this wine and, really, as soon as I saw the label, I was sold. Vorias (Βορέας) god of the north wind and Helios ( Ἠέλιος) is of course, the god of the sun, two things that influence their vineyards, are beautifully depicted in their label. Then I drank it. This one wine was all it took really to sell me on the whole winery. I cannot wait to get back to Athens and snap up as many different of their wines as possible! Located to the far west of the country, near the Ionian sea and

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

  It's been absolute ages since I've been to Lebanon. Luckily for me, even though Lebanese wine is not available in Turkey, I still get to enjoy the wine. My boss is both Lebanese and a wine lover. She will often share with me or even bring me a bottle after a visit to Beirut. The only small downside: she loves red wine so I get red wine. Being the grape geek that I am though, I've been dying to try the native Lebanese grape, Obeidy, that everyone's been talking about! Low and behold! From someone passing through Beirut, some friends arranged a bottle of white wine for me as

By 1Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Arcadia, based in upper Thrace in Kırklareli, has long prided itself on its winemaking techniques. Including a crazy looking machine that very gently filters the wines and then bottling them unfined. They're now following the popular trend of spontaneous fermentation, or doğal fermentasyon in the Turkish. This has become a growing trend over the last few years. Some wineries, like Kastro Tireli and Tomurcukbağ, have always allowed their wine to ferment spontaneously with ambient yeasts. Büyülübağ has made one or two "wild ferment" wines for years. When Claros opened, they did the same and Gürbüz, Paşaeli, and probably a handful of others all have at least a couple wines.

By 3Amphora, European Wines, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  With woman still being marginalized in the wine world (although oddly enough not in Turkey which you can read about here!), it continues to be important to lift up those who are in the industry. So, I'm celebrating International Women's Day with a wine made by a woman at the winery she owns: Csetvei Pincészet Ezerjó Amphora. I'm a great fan of Hungarian wine but rarely let myself open one. Once it's drunk, it's gone and who knows when I'll be able to get another one! [caption id="" align="alignright" width="351"] Krisztina Csetvei - photo from Csetvei Pincészet[/caption] And yet, if any day is a good day to enjoy one of

By 1Sparkling Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I briefly mentioned the Yaban Kolektif during a previous post about Patkara. Since that collaboration with the Asmadan winery, Yaban Kolektif has partnered with Vinolus to create two new wines from the rare grape, Sungurlu. Similar to the Patkara origin stories, Sungurlu has previously only been vinified by Urla Şarapçılık as part of its limited Discovery series. Since then, we haven't seen anything from this grape.  From Yaban's Instagram: Yaban is a step taken to reunite viticulture and winemaking in Turkey with its past and forgotten values. We lost our rich viticulture culture, winemaking techniques, traditions, festivities and rituals in a short time after the natural disasters and forced population

By 2European Wines, Red Wine, Wine Reviews

  [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="500"] Image created by https://mycupofwine.com/[/caption] For March's #ItalianFWT chat, Jennifer of Vino Travels has invited us all to explore the wines of Molise, Basilicata, and Campania. I don't often get to play with the #ItalianFWT group as the wines are generally not available in Turkey. However, this year I am so excited because I have the wines to participate in almost every month's event! A friend recently posted to the consulate offered me space in her shipping/alcohol allowance insert mad scientist laugh. Aglianico del Vulture DOC Aglianico del Vulture DOC(G) is THE appellation in southern Italy's Basilicata. Located in the northeast of the region, the DOC and DOCG