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August 2026

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  My adventures with Turkish wine importer, Fine Turkish Wine, continue! Well at least the writing of them does, the adventures themselves ended in November. And it's taking ever so much longer to write about these visits than it took to make them! After two days in Trakya (aka Thrace), visiting first Arcadia, then Arda, and Gürbüz Winery. We next headed for the Aegean where our first stop was Kuzubağ,  next to Heraki, then Kastro Tireli for a multi-winery tasting, and finally Akberg.   Things weren't over just because we returned to Istanbul. We snagged a meeting with Alp Törüner, founder of Büyülübağ. Alp generously opened so many wines for us and

  It's August!! Why am I so excited for this typically hottest, most unbearable month of the year? It's my birthday! It's all about meeee!!!! While I won't be saying which birthday, I will be posting about the wines I'm so excited to drink on the day. Whether or not those are what my horoscope says I should be drinking remains to be seen.  But forget about me for a nanosecond, what's going on with you this month? What will you be drinking? Read on to find out.  And remember, if you're not somewhere with easy access to Turkish wine, don't hesitate to reach out (to me, the universe doesn't always respond

  Have you ever wondered how some wines get their name and what that name means? A lot of the bottles crowding store shelves don't have what we call a fantasy name. They're labeled simply with the grape or blend used to craft the wine.  In Turkey, I think more wines than not are labeled only with the grape(s). A number of wineries do use fantasy names though. Pretty much all of 7Bilgeler's wines have a name, some of Corvus' wines do, as do a number of Chamlija's, like the Kara Sevda. There's also: Vino Dessera Vin Amoris, Vino Dessera 190 blend, Arcadia's Mahiada and the 333, Gürbüz's Hieron Oros,

  At least their wine industries do. While I haven't had the chance to deeply explore Mexican wine, a little research has turned up some parallels between their industry and Turkey's. They do say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, hopefully I don't do too much harm here.  Mexico and Turkey: Cut From the Same Vine Appellations Let's start by looking at rules, regulations, appellations, and so on. Many countries around the world have some sort of wine appellation system in place: AVAs in the US, PDO/PGI (broadly) in Europe, GI in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, WO in South Africa, etc. Mexico has no such system. Neither (with one

  A few weeks ago, I signed up for a wine tasting of rare grapes at Wayana in Moda. Wayana regularly does tastings, but this one caught my eye because I love nothing so much as a grape I've never heard of. What was billed as a tasting of eight wines turned into 13. Spoiler alert: it was pretty amazing. But before we dive into tasting notes, and we will get there, let's talk first about the mission to uncover Turkey's rare grapes. [caption id="attachment_14748" align="alignright" width="503"] Kösetevek grapes, Kuzeybağ[/caption] Uncovering Turkey's Rare Grapes I call it a mission, and it is "an important goal or purpose that is accompanied by strong conviction;

  This June saw the launch of Turkey's newest wine route: the Troia Bağ Yolu. Pack your bags, put on some sunscreen, and get ready for an adventure! Troia Bağ Yolu / Troy Wine Route Troy. A name deeply embedded into the minds of every lover of myth and legend, every high school student who had to read Homer, all of us who sat through that truly terrible movie from the early aughts, draws tourists in droves year after year. The founders of the new wine route are hoping to capitalize on that.  The Troia Bağ Yolu (Troy Wine Route) has brought together people from both the wine and tourism industry in

  Another month come and gone. I don't know about you, but for me it was sweaty and borderline icky (no klima here) and crazy busy. It'll be months before I get a chance to write up all the wine activities I attended. Not that I'm complaining! It always surprises me when I get invited to things. I'm generally so flattered, I'd probably go to the opening of an envelope, as the saying goes.  But, speaking of opening

  A few weeks ago, I posted about a marathon wine tasting I did in Manisa. That tasting, hosted at Kastro Tireli by the winemakers behind not only Kastro Tireli but also Heraki, Yaban Kolektif, Sobran Bağları, and Vinolus featured the newest Erciş Karası vintage from Yaban Kolektif. I also recently wrote about the newest vintage of the Akberg Lethe Erciş Karası. But now it's time to really dig into the grape and see how it does with different winemaking techniques and how it ages. [caption id="attachment_22822" align="alignright" width="280"] Erciş Karası, photo by Yaban Kolektif[/caption] Let's get into it. Erciş Karası Erciş Karası comes to us from the northeast of Turkey, from the vast

  Last November, I had the chance to re-visit Arcadia Bağları in Thrace with US importer, Fine Turkish Wine. Zeynep generously opened so many of their wines for us. Previously, I covered some of those in a post about the Arcadia Odrysia wines. Now, it's time to take a second look, and talk about some of the others, including two of the new bubbles! Arcadia Bağları  Arcadia Vineyards is a father–daughter dream brought to life in Lüleburgaz, once known as Arcadiapolis—an apt setting for their “earthly paradise.” Inspired by Zeynep Arca Şalliel's early love of wine and her desire to work with soil, she and her father Ozcan turned shared late-night

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