Kicking off #MerlotMe Month with Uçmakdere Roze
If you’ve seen the movie, Sideways, you’ll remember the infamous line about Merlot. Some attribute the movie to the grape’s loss of popularity in the US. Related or not, growers pulled up some 10,000 acres of Merlot in California alone following the film’s unaccountable success.
Sales of Merlot were already rebounding by 2013 when #MerlotMe got its start, but the hashtag and its devoted followers I’m sure helped! #MerlotMe takes place during all of October, …or Merlober if you will (i.e. the month of Merlot!). If you’re a Merlot lover, or looking to give it a second chance, and want to participate, you can! Just head over to MerlotMe.com and find out how!
Uçmakdere Winery
Uçmakdere Winery, based in the village of the same name along the Sea of Marmara, is one of the most exciting wineries for me right now. Entirely because of the winemaker, Işıl Bulutsuz. I got to interview Işıl in March about the winery, and you can check out that post here.
A phoenix rising from the ruins of a winery abandoned during the 1920s population exchange; Firuze is a young winery now owned by two Turkish families. Attracted to the history of winemaking in the region, the Bulutsuz and Gülbay families purchased a previously closed winery and modernized and revamped the facilities.
Uçmakdere Roze, 2019
Made with 100% Merlot, this is one of the few examples we have in Turkey of a rosé made via the saignée, or bleeding off, method. However, the final wine did not have the dark color that often marks a saignée wine as it macerated only one hour before being drawn off.
I have noticed that a fair amount of Turkish rosés have an orange-tinted pink color. For a while, I assumed it was tied to a specific grape variety. But then I started seeing more rosés of different grapes with this color. Maybe it’s a thing about Turkish soils? I need some winemakers to weigh in on this!
Like dainty butterfly wings, aromas of pink grapefruit, cranberry, and citrus peel danced in the glass and ushered in similar flavors, kissed with raspberry, on the palate. Lively acidity and the pretty, fruity flavors belied the 13% alcohol making this very easy to drink wine pretty dangerous!
Happily, it also proved to be quite food friendly which lowered the danger threshold a bit. The Uçmakdere Roze paired very well with the black pepper and truffle Goudas, dates, and dried cranberries that I put on my cheeseboard. It also went much better with the rosemary honey baked chicken breast than I thought it would. I suspect the acidity from all the tomatoes helped lift the chicken and match the wine’s acidity.