Advent Wine A Mini Tasting
For today’s post I’m taking a slight departure in that these bottles did not come from the pre-selected Advent wines. I was asked to give a small (online) wine tasting. Having then opened three wines for this, and being my cat is a teetotaler, I deemed it unwise to open yet one more wine just to get something from the Advent calendar. And I cannot say I’m feeling particularly sad about the situation. I had a peek into the box and all but one of the remaining wines have been covered for more blind tasting challenges.
As it was, we had a great tasting with most of the participants having at least two of the three wines! Much easier to source when you’re in Istanbul of course. But one really had to admire the two joining from the UK. They brought the wines with them from Istanbul for their Christmas visit home!
I was asked to select three red wines for this tasting and tried to include a mix of grapes, styles, and prices while sticking to what could easily be sourced. I like the mix I ended up with!
Chamlija Kara Sevda Papaskarası, 2018
Chamlija has several wines made with the native Thracian grape, Papaskarası. The Kara Sevda is my favorite. Whole bunch pressed and aged for 10 months in French oak barrels, this is a savory and food friendly wine.
Alcohol: 12.5% abv
Appearance: pale but persistent garnet
Nose: Red currants and raspberries followed by bay leaf, earth, and mushroom with a whisper of white pepper expressed themselves on the nose.
Palate: Fresh and elegant in the mouth with low tannins, medium acidity, and the prickling sensation of spice. Savory and earthy reflecting some of the notes from the nose but also introducing black olive.
I opened this prior to the wine tasting to drink with my dinner. It paired beautifully with the baked pumpkin bacon tart I had!
Vinkara Wines Winehouse, 2018
Vinkara Wines, a great promoter of Turkish grape varieties, grows its Öküzgözü in its Kalecik vineyards in Central Anatolia. In addition to highlighting yet another terroir for this grape, Vinkara’s Winehouse series does something very special with this grape. The Winehouse Öküzgözü blends together “young” wine with small amounts of wines made in both the ripasso and passito methods giving this wine an entirely different personality from any other Öküzgözü I’ve ever tried. And at only about 89 TL ($13), it’s a steal. One I will be drinking again.
Alcohol: 14%
Appearance: medium opaque, clear garnet
Nose: Equal measures of cherry, strawberry jam, and nutmeg with earthy bay leaf, black olives, and black tea aromas that took me back to endless mugs of Russian black tea my friends and I downed at our Russian professor’s dining table while discussing Russian literature.
Palate: Not too long ago, I had the 2016 vintage of this which I found fruitier and fresher. The 2018 presented with a great deal more and chewier tannins. While palate still had some of those black tea and strawberry jam flavors, I found it overall to be more savory. The bay leaf and black olives were very prominent along with a thread of black pepper.
Arda Kuşlu Late Harvest Merlot, 2018
Arda has experimented with a couple iterations of late harvest Merlot. After letting the grapes hang longer than usual, they dry them on racks similarly to the Italian appassimento process. This year for the first time the winery released a dry wine they’d made with late harvest Merlot grapes that air dried for two weeks. The wine aged for eight months in French oak barrels and underwent no filtration prior to bottling.
Alcohol: 15% abv
Appearance: deep, intense ruby
Nose: Perhaps because I had Valpolicella on my mind but this really reminded me of Amarone in the bouquet. Very rich aromas of black pepper, fresh and dried figs, brown spices, and chocolate lifted from the wine straight off the pour.
Palate: A pleasingly silky texture slipped across the tongue carrying intense flavors reflective of the nose joined by rosemary. Medium-bodied with high alcohol and medium plus, lively acidity this was very enjoyable. I also know from past experience that this wine is very food friendly.