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  The Smyrna Sauvignon Blanc Trebbiano by LA Wines I picked up a Carrefour not too long ago. I’ve never tried any of Smyrna’s wines and since summer is still on and I needed more whites I figured why not. This was a good decision. I always hesitate a little over Sauvignon Blancs never knowing if I’m going to get something that’s on the herby and green pepper end of the scale (which I do not like) or the riper peachy and fruity end of the scale (which I do like). Because wine roulette is not my favorite game, despite how often I seem to play it here, I was

  I’m always leery of white wines but I got talked into this one against my better judgement. When I see “aged for 8 months in oak barrels” usually I run the other way. Sigh, there’s a reason we pay attention to our instincts. But with the way the TL is going these days (sorry about that, Turkey) a 97TL bottle isn’t as horribly expensive as it used to be. Out of the bottle the Suvla Reserve Roussanne Marsanne was a lot paler than I expected, a very soft yellow. The softness of the tint belied the strength of the nose which was very perfumey and full of citrus and oak. Right

  Aside form a late harvest white I have yet to open, the vast majority of wines I brought home from Hungary were reds. However a talkative young man at the Dorgicesi hut convinced me that I should try a wine made from a traditional Hungarian grape and got me to give their Juhfark a try.  For 1200 HUF (just over $4) what could it hurt? Absolutely nothing, that’s what it could hurt. Or couldn’t hurt more accurately. If scents are colors then the color of the Juhfark and the nose match perfectly. The wine is a beautiful golden color that seemed almost reflected in the hints of honey in the

  Continuing my forays into pink wine I agreed to a bottle of Suvla Blush Cabernet Sauvignon 2014. I generally like a Cab so I didn’t figure I go terribly wrong getting one that just didn’t sit as long with the grape skins. I didn’t go terribly wrong…nor did it exactly blow me way either. To start with, the Suvla Blush was a very attractive looking wine with it’s peachy, salmon-like color. The nose was also quite nice: fruity with maybe some hints of oak and a scent that was very familiar but frustratingly elusive. On the palate it was low in tannins, medium acid, and with a long finish. The majority of

  The Vylyan Ordog 2012 we found at a restaurant one evening. Our choices were limited to only three reds (one of which was immediately eliminated for the sin of being a Merlot) and of the two remaining options, the Vylyan won because of the fantastic description: Because this is Hungary, the description in the menu was in Hungarian, English, and German. I have no idea what the Hungarian says but the English translation was pretty boring telling is only that “barrel aging makes this wine really demonic”. It’s in the German though that we found the best description: “Der Teufel der alten Legende ist liebevoll!” Or: The Devil of

  A while back E and I trekked out to the Kanyon mall to visit Macro Center-a place I have avoided for two and a half years because I heard it was addictive. Macro Center, you see, is the import grocery store. In the end I was actually pretty disappointed by it. My local Carrefour carries a lot of the same things; although I was thrilled beyond measure to find large tubs of red curry paste! No more having to get people to bring/send me the itty bitty pots of Thai Kitchen paste. I was of course hoping that the import store would have a decent selection of foreign

  I’m still excited over having found Turkish Viognier. There are truly very few dry white wines I can even tolerate let alone like and I thought Viognier was lost to me when I left the DC metro area. I won’t give Virginia props for much but they grow an outstanding Viognier. So, it seems, does Chamlija which creates a bottle worth 90-something TL (from Sensus).  We’ve already swooned over the straight up Viognier so now it’s time to talk about the Chamlija Viognier Narince blend. Pale yellow in color, the Chamlija Viognier Narince nose is a little on the flat side (often typical with Viognier) but there are soft notes

  I brought home a number of bottles from my miserable week in Hungary. Which, to clarify, was miserable not because I was in Hungary but because of why I was there. What’s not entirely miserable is this 2012 Chateau Vazsonyi Zweigelt I picked up while there. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a Zweigelt wine before. Typically an Austrian grape (although apparently also cultivated in Hungary) the blue-black Zweigelt grape is used for both red and rose wines. A dark, opaque red, the Chateau Vazsonyi is very hot in the nose with cassis and maybe blueberry. It’s definitely a little hot. Not much for the tannins, nor is there a great

  Suvla has out a new series this year: Bigalı (running 19TL/bottle). I believe we’ve already covered the red so, in keeping with drinking more whites during the summer, it is time to discuss the Suvla Bigalı White. The Suvla Bigalı White is like a super blend combining Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chardonnay, Roussanne, and Marsanne. I’m not even sure where to begin with all of them especially as I am completely unfamiliar with the latter two. So with everything I don’t know in mind…here we go. The 2014 Suvla Bigalı White is straw gold in color.  The nose is very floral (unsurprising really with any of these grapes). On the palate it’s floral,

  We’re trying something a little different today! I was stuck in the middle of nowhere Hungary for work for a 10-day staff retreat…so naturally I was drinking. I was drinking a lot. It’s been 12-ish years since I was in Hungary and I knew zero about wine then which means that Hungarian wine made no impression on me (sorry, dudes). However I was happy to learn on this trip! That was about the only ting I was happy to do on that trip… The village where we were sequestered had a festival of Hungarianness. Although (as one vendor explained to me) it was not Hungarianness that has always been