Get to Know the Grape: Çalkarası
If Turkey has a workhorse grape, this is it.
Grown in the abundant vineyards of Denizli in Turkey’s Aegean region, Çalkarası (chal-car-as-ser) has often been used to support red blends. In blends, it lends some acidity to flabby grapes and fills out a wine if the preferred grapes didn’t do so well that year. Meaning the “black from Çal” this grape prefers the clay loam and chalky soils of, you guessed it, Çal (a district in the Denizli province).
The dark purple have a slightly elongated shape, are small to medium in size, and don’t have especially thin skins. They retain acidity well and when vinified as a red wine, result in fresh wines with bright acidity and low tannins. While previously pigeonholed as a grape only interesting enough to serve as a workhorse, a few producers now make more complex single varietal wines with Çalkarası. A vigorously growing grape, Çalkarası has demonstrated that when yields are restricted, it can produce higher quality wines in a variety of styles. Paşaeli in particular has created a range of excellent wines with this grape including two types of rosé, a blanc de noir, and a serious red.
Çalkarası grapes offer an aroma profile that includes: peaches, strawberries, red fruits, citrus, and ripe white fruits along with lavender, bay leaf, and black pepper.
Food Pairing
Its versatility in wine styles helps Çalkarası pair with a range of foods and flavors. Particularly as a red wine, try it with chicken, duck, pork, and turkey as well as beef or lamb based dishes like stuffed peppers/zucchini. As a rosé, Çalkarası can pair well with tangy barbeque sauces and in any of its color iterations, try it with Indian flavors, stuffed grape leaves, and other oil-based mezes.
Given the range of wine styles it’s no surprise that this grapes goes well with a number of cheeses. Try it with fresh and semi-hard cheeses such as dil peynir, young gouda, gravyer, hellim/halloumi, kaşar, mozzarella, ricotta, string cheese, and goat-milk based cheeses. It’s quite vegetable friendly as well pairing with beans, eggplant, green peppers, leeks, lentils, lettuces, onion, pumpkin, squash, summer squash, zucchini…go nuts!
And speaking of nuts! Try cooking with almonds and walnuts as well as allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, garam masala, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme.
Producers to check out
Since I first posted this article, multiple wineries have jumped on the Çalkarası bandwagon. Paşaeli still leads the pack with no less than SIX wines made with Çalkarası and you can still find some insipid wines from Denizli-based producers… However, more wineries have embraced the grapes ability to make high-quality wines. In addition to Paşaeli, you should be looking for wines from Kuzubağ and Heraki. Other producers include Küp Şarap, Pamukkale, Ezel, and Lermonos.
Several Turkish grapes share a similar profile with Çalkarası. If you like this grape, also check out: Çakal Üzümü, Fersun, Foça Karası, and Merzifon Karası.
Click to see my reviews of Çalkarası wines.