Sommeliers Selection Turkey 2018
Another February has come and gone, although you wouldn’t have known it were you in Istanbul. It’s been a few years since we experienced such a mild winter and while I’m sure there are huge negative environmental impacts resulting from it; for snow haters such as myself it was a delight.
The Wines
February brought more than unseasonably balmy weather and yet another Valentine’s Day spent with my cat…it also meant another
Sommeliers’ Selection Turkey. Last year was the first year I attended and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t known about it before. One of (if not the) largest wine events in Turkey, Sommeliers’ Selection is a great place to find producers who are either just coming onto the market or who don’t usually sell in Istanbul. It was also a fantastic opportunity for my writing partner Istanbites and I to make contact with producers about the project we’re working on.
Wineries from all over Turkey were at the event. Instead of organizing tables by producer, tables are organized by type of wine. While that does make sense it meant a lot of bouncing around for me. I’d probably already had a good 80%+ of the wines there so my goal was to find the producers with which I am not familiar.
This year’s event was great. I discovered a lot of great wines. Some from new (to me) producers like Hanchalar, Gemici, and Bağcı; but also new wines from old favorites like Likya, Gordias, and Sevilen. Now I just have to wait for some of the new wines to make it to the market.
The Workshops
Also new this year were workshops. A great addition to the event. I attended two of the workshops. One on terroir with Levon Bağış, Turkey’s foremost wine and gastronomy expert; and one with Murat Mumcoğlu, founder of Şarap Atolyesi, on the wines of Edrine.
The terroir workshop was fantastic. We tried eight different wines in pairs with each pair representing a winery from diverse areas in Turkey. Turkey has diverse geology, soils, and climates and the wines Bağış selected really highlighted how those differences affect wine.
While I’m familiar with Edrine’s wines I always enjoy Mumcoğlu’s tastings. And as it turns out Edrine debuted a couple new wines at Somms this year; a Papazkarası blanc de noirs and a Papazkarası rose. Both of which I really liked. Unlike their rebranding. Edrine’s old labels were classier and had a really nice family story behind them. These new labels, particularly the ones on the red wine bottles, look like a little like something a nouveau riche Russian oligarch from the 90s would design.
All in all a fantastic event. The workshops were a great addition, met some interesting people, fell in love with a few new wines, and gave my Turkish a workout. Looking forward to next year’s wines and people already!