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  Last winter Istanbites and I visited Thracian winery Saranta. In addition to getting a tour of the winery, it's impressive cellars, and beautiful tasting room, of course we had a nice tasting. While I love all of Saranta's wines, particularly the Chateau Murou line, the highlight of our visit wasn't the tasting. Or at least not the official tasting. I most enjoyed the sip from the tank we had of the winery's new Chateau Murou Semillon. A new grape to Saranta, but not to Turkey. Semillon first appeared in the country over fifty years ago. Brought in by the then patriarch of the family behind the Doluca and Kutman

  Last December I met up with several friends in Ljubljana. We were there for the Christmas market (I try to visit one every year) and so that I could tick Slovenia off my former Yugoslavia country list. But most importantly, we were there for wine. A whirl-wind trip lasting just a few days, I nonetheless managed to discover a variety of Slovenian wineries and grapes. Vina Colja was one of those wineries. Part of the Primorska wine region along the Italian border, Vina Colja sits in the Vipava Valley. Sixty percent of the winery's vineyards is planted to white grape varieties including Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Malvasia, Zelen, and Pinella. While

  Unless you're a serious student of history and/or a fan of the Roman Empire, chances are if you've heard of the city of Antioch it was in church. I know that's where I first heard the name uttered. Mostly I associated it with all the preachy letters from Saint Paul (never my favorite evangalist). Until I moved to Turkey.  [caption id="attachment_13300" align="alignleft" width="300"] Saint Pierre church in Hatay-one of the oldest Christian churches in the world[/caption] I feel every time I turn around I discover an ancient city (most of them from the Bible no less) that either has a new, Turkish name (for example Smyrna is now Izmir and Nicaea

  Umurbey arguably makes one of the best Sauvignon Blancs in Turkey. While the winery's proprietor, Umur bey (Mr. Umur) does not want to be known as a white wine maker; the winery's Sauvignon Blanc is its most recognized wine. It is not, however, the only white wine. Many site Semillon as (one of) the first foreign grape planted in Turkey. Plantings, which remain concentrated on Turkey's European side from Kırklareli down through the Gallipoli peninsula, go back as far as the early twentieth century. Varietal Semillon wines are still elusive, the exception being Saranta's Chateau Murou Semillon. Winemakers mostly use the grape in blended white wines, like this Sauvignon

  It's been a little while since I've written about Chamlija's wines. While not writing about them, I certainly haven't stopped drinking Chamlija's wines. Or thinking about them. In my opinion, other than guaranteed quality and sometimes amazingly beautiful wines, Chamlija's two biggest contributions to the Turkish wine industry are the winery's willingness to experiment, and its championship of native Turkish grapes; especially Papaskarası. Moreover, when these two attributes combine, the genius that results.  At once both clinical and adventurous, Chamlija winery bring s anew level of experimentation to the Turkish wine industry. While great believers in what terroir brings to a wine, therefore planting the same varieties in multiple

  It was while studying agriculture in Germany that Gaye Özcan, proprietor and winemaker at Nif Bağları, learned about the grape Solaris. Developed in 1975 in Germany, Solaris is a hybrid grape resulting from a crossing of Merzling and GM 6493 (which itself is a crossing of Zarya Severa and Muscat Ottonel). Early ripening and disease resistant, Solaris can reach high sugar levels even in cool climates with little sunshine making it increasingly popular in Europe's more northern countries. Having gained an appreciation for the grape and its viticultural properties, Özcan ensured the planting of some vines in her Aegean vineyards. Currently she uses the grape only as a blending partner