Yenidoğuş Karaoğlan Rezerv
Despite living in Istanbul for two years; one of them right next to the famous French Street which high volume live music keeps me awake many nights until 2-3 AM; I had never actually gone to the street until a few weeks ago. Restaurant selection is very much like that in Sultanahmet; you walk through, brushing off touts until you’re ready to give in and sit somewhere. We ended up in a pretty decent place with a pretty excellent (if over priced) wine from the Shiluh winery in Mardin.
Sadly on looking for Shiluh wines at Cihangir’s Le Cave I was told they neither have any nor expect to get more. Sad. They recommended instead a wine by Yenidoğuş that was supposed to be similar so, after my long lead-in, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
The 2008 Yenidoğuş Karaoğlan Rezerv (I think 40TL) began auspiciously with a lovely ruby red color and a nose full of red fruits and spice.
On the palate it was meh with nether the tannins nor the finish being memorable. In fact it felt very thin and watery in the mouth. I did like the intense tobacco and cherry flavors but that was about all I liked about the Yenidoğuş.
The Yenidoğuş wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t as good as the Shiluh I’d had the night before nor as good as several other wines I’ve had here. I would drink it again but not buy it again is where I come down on this one.