Get to Know the Grape: Çal Karası
If Turkey has a workhorse grape, this is it. Grown in the abundant vineyards of Denizli in Turkey's Aegean region, Çal Kkarası (chal kah-ra-sih) has often been used to support red blends. In blends, it lends some acidity to flabby grapes and fills out a wine if the preferred grapes didn't do so well that year. Meaning the "black from Çal" this grape prefers the clay loam and chalky soils of, you guessed it, Çal (a district in the Denizli province). The dark purple have a slightly elongated shape, are small to medium in size, and don't have especially thin skins. They retain acidity well and when vinified as a
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