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Canavar Ampelo Karasakız: Discover the Monster Within

With a view of living a life closer to nature, Can and Duygu Kırış bought some land in Bayramiç in 2017, with the view to starting an eco-tourism-related business. The land they bought came ready planted with olive trees, a local nectarine variety, a vegetable garden, and a small plot of Karasakız vines. Becoming winemakers was not part of their initial plan. In 2019, Can, out of curiosity, asked the original planter of the vineyard to show him how to make wine with the grapes…” being 100% it was going to taste awful.”

It might very well have turned out exactly as he expected. Being new to wine and not knowing when harvest should happen, they got their grapes five weeks late. But, making good wine wasn’t the point of this venture; it was simply to learn about the process. According to Can, “To our surprise, the sweet, late-harvested wine was amazing in fruit profile and had a great acidic backbone that carried it…And that’s pretty much why we got involved in winemaking now. Because of a late harvest Karasakız wine.”

Since then, Can and Duygu have fully leaned into the wine world as both winemakers and wine importers. Their winemaking approach reflects their lifestyle of being close to and respectful of nature. As they practice ecological and sustainable farm practices, they approach winemaking with the same mentality. Canavar means ‘monster’. Not necessarily the scary with teeth and claws kind, but “a wild creature that lives in fairy tales and legends”. They took this name to emulate the life in the vines and in “… the yeast on the grape skin and the wine in the bottle”.

Canavar Ampelos Karasakız, 2022

This “monster” wine came from 35-year-old vines and, despite the name and the “wildness” of its production, goes down smoothly. 

Clear, medium-pale ruby in the glass. An aromatic, dry red wine that burst with aromas of mulberry, raspberry, pomegranate, and black pepper. Absolutely mouthwatering! On the palate, elegant and fruity with ripe tannins, a mouth-filling silkiness, nice acidity, and moderate alcohol at 13.5%. A beautiful fruit-forward example of Karasakız but with plenty of the grape’s signature black pepper spiciness.

Canavar’s wine production is small. Very small. For the 2022 vintage, they produced only 1500 bottles of this Karasakız.