Blog

Advent Wine Blind Tasting Eight

You might perhaps notice the different Christmas tree. I took to the road for this particular wine tasting challenge. Which in reality was far less sexy than it sounds. Really I just took the bottle to a friend’s for dinner and we did the challenge together.

From the start neither of us were a fan of this. We could tell it was young, had little to no oak ageing, and was likely a low to mid-range Öküzgözü Boğazkere blend from a large format winery. I further supposed that we were drinking a cool-climate wine with probably moderate alcohol around 13.5% abv.

So, did an extra brain help me guess correctly? Actually, we didn’t do too bad!

Turasan Öküzgözü Boğazkere, 2017

Pretty much the only thing I missed here was the alcohol level which was significantly higher than I’d have guessed. Well than I did guess as the case were. Having just been pleasantly surprised by the Turasan Boğazkere, the blend was a huge disappointment.

Appearance: clear, medium opaque, and quite a pretty ruby

Alcohol: 14.3% abv

Nose: Medium intense aromas of black mulberry, strawberry, cedar, forest, clove, black pepper, and barbeque smoke

Palate: Medium-bodied with medium  acidity and low tannins. Cherry and strawberry fruit presented on the palate but were overwhelmed by an unpleasant bitterness.