Doluca Karma Chardonnay Narince
Quite some time ago I had the opportunity to attend a vertical tasting of some of Doluca’s Karma wines. These were the red blends, mainly Shiraz Boğazkere and Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü blends. You can see my review of all of those here. Since then, I also got my hands on a bottle of the white Karma. Which frankly was not entirely recently. My drinking sadly outpaces my blogging by rather a lot!
While the Karma line includes three red blends (the aforementioned Shiraz Boğazkere, Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü, and a Merlot Boğazkere), there is only one white in the series. Like the other three wines, the white blends together an international grape and a native Turkish grape. In this instances, the blend includes Chardonnay and Narince.
The Chardonnay comes from Doluca’s vineyards in Denizli which is a high elevation plain in Turkey’s western Aegean. The Narince comes from Tokat in the north near the Black Sea. The wine spent 12 months in French and American oak. Normally I would find that a huge turn off, but Doluca’s Karma series (red or white!) is so well-made there’s no fear of the oak here!
Doluca Karma Chardonnay Narince, 2017
Have you ever thought how deceptive the color of white wine can be? You see a pale-ish yellow and feel tricked into thinking there won’t be much to the wine. Such is this case with this one. Even with 12 months in oak, the wine looked only a medium pale lemon in the glass, but that was the only thing ‘pale’ about the wine!
I felt initially a tad assaulted by wafts of vanilla, baked apple, and banana. Happily (for me since I don’t like vanilla or banana in my wine), that blew off to unveil aromas of white flowers, fruit blossom, and wet stone minerality buried in the core.
Sipping revealed a wine of such freshness and zingy acidity you’d never know it had such high alcohol (14% abv). Much less oaky vanilla than the nose indicated, palate flavors leaned more towards rip citrus fruit, pear, and apple, pastry crust, and burnt sugar on the lingering finish. Medium-bodied, bone dry, and absolutely mouthwatering.