Kayraklı Şarapçılık Asarcık Öküzgözü Boğazkere
One of the newer additions to the Turkish wine scene, Kayraklı Şarapçılık is based in the Muğla district of the Aegean. Founder Orhan Kayraklı planted his organically farmed vines in the Asarcık valley between the Bozdurun and Selimiye villages. The vines, completely surrounded by mountainous terrain, grow at 250 meters. Continuous winds cool the valley making it 4-5 Celsius degrees cooler than the areas around it and contribute to significant diurnal temperature swings. Slate and gravel overlay layers of limestone and clay and the vines grow without irrigation.
The wines have been available in regional wine shops for a year or more but only recently have migrated to Istanbul. And they’re expensive. When I first got some of their wines, the prices averaged 250 TL a bottle. Now after the annual new year tax hike and everyone increasing their prices an average 30% due to the latest inflation, one can only guess what they average now.
When I ordered from the winery, I got one white, the Roussanne Marsanne, a rosé, and two reds. Today we’re tackling the “reserve” red, an Öküzgözü Boğazkere blend.
Kayraklı Şarapçılık Asarcık Öküzgözü Boğazkere, 2019
The wine spent an unspecified amount of time in French oak. My guess would be a less then a year but with a larger percentage of new oak. It poured a deep purple with a bright rim. Initially a bit reductive, the blend slowly opened to rich blue/black fruits, pepper, nutmeg, dried flowers, and mahlep. Grippy tannins, medium acidity, and moderate alcohol (13.1% abv) more or less played well together. And while I enjoyed the plummy fruits, brown spices, and hint of coffee on the palate, the overall impression the wine gave me was that of an old-school, rather heavy-handed wine. Especially for one so young, the wine lacked the vivacity of fresh fruit flavors.
Not a bad wine, but for the performance, in my opinion, over-priced. This is a popular blend in Turkey so if you’re going to charge higher than the average bottle, especially without a history behind your name, you need to be making a wine that performs better than fair.
I find a number of contradictions to Kayraklı Şarapçılık. They’ve posted their organic farming certification on their website. That’s not a usual move here and I think that’s pretty cool. But they seem to be overwhelming their organic grapes with a rather lot of oak. Prices are high, yet they use cheap corks. I want to like what they’re doing because every new winery here is a win; but I’m not there yet.