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  In September Lori Budd of Exploring the Wineglass and Dracaena Wines reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested in being a guest on her podcast Winefabet Street. Obviously! Lori shares the Winefabet Street podcast with Debbie Gioquindo, the Hudson Valley Wine Goddess. I'd "met" Lori before. She's kindly had me as a guest on her her Exploring the Wineglass podcast previously. I've also done a guest post for her blog about Natural Wine in Turkey. But this was my first time meeting Debbie and as a long-time follower of her blog I was thrilled to get to talk with her. Even if it was at 2

  I've been a little neglectful of my wine bar reviews of late. November and December were insane! Hopefully with the new year things will calm down a bit and I can really dig back into things. I'm starting the year with a wine bar review of Beyoğlu Şaraphanesi. Tucked away in the warren of bars that is Asmalı Mescit, Beyoğlu Şaraphanesi is like a calm oasis of class and excellent wine. The French bistro-style façade opens into a long gallery warm, exposed brick walls and warm lighting gleaming off shining glassware. One of the things I love about the place is the mix of brick, stone, stained glass, and

  Summer red-wine drinkers meet your new best friend, Fersun! Fersun (fehr-soon) is a recently rescued from extinction native Turkish grape. Grown exclusively by Likya Şarapları, (who also did the rescuing), not a great deal is known yet about Fersun’s ampelographic background. But it does seem to be native to Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Antalya. This pale, purple-red grape creates light to medium bodied wines redolent of pomegranate, blackberry, strawberry, black currant leaf, tomato leaf, bay leaf, black tea, black pepper, and violet. Low in tannin and with medium acidity, its wines are perfect to drink lightly chilled. Food Pairing For as much as we don’t know about the origins of this wine,

  If you've never visited my site or seen me on social media, you may not know that I spent four + years writing a book. But I did. And The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine is finally finished, printed, and available for sale!* But that's not entirely what this post is about. I recently met Lisa Morrow. If you don't know who she is but you're at all intrigued by Turkey, you need to know her. She's been here for ages now and has written several books about seeing Turkey through an expat's eyes as well as maintaining her own blog: Inside Out In Istanbul. Meeting her has opened

  Most people, including many wine enthusiasts, have not heard of many (or any) of Turkey’s grape varieties. While Turkey shares some native grapes with its geographic neighbors, the majority are endemic to the country. There’s no Narince in California. No Öküzgözü in South Africa. Nor is there any Kalecik Karası in New Zealand

  Located a little over an hour's flight from Istanbul, Cappadocia is the jewel of central Turkey. Its surreal "fairy chimney" rock formations, hot air balloon tourism, and network of underground cities and cave churches has made it one of the country's top attractions—for good reason. Just as impressive but far less known, however, is the region’s history as an important wine center that predates Christianity and where some of the world’s first viticultural legislation was introduced. Today, Cappadocian producers draw on this rich history to produce interesting, complex wines that spotlight ancient native (and foreign) grapes. In Cappadocia, evidence of grape and wine production dates back to at least

  From Çalkarası to Fersun, these emerging grapes should be on your radar. An hour and a half drive from Antalya along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, Likya Şarapları sits in the Taurus Mountains high above Antalya’s Elmalı district. The winery has made a name for itself with wine made from popular grapes both domestic and international. But what really excites the Özkan family, owners of the winery, is Acıkara. Knowing that their region has a very old wine history, the Özkans reasoned that there must have been native grapes there before. They began to research the area and learned, through local shepherds, of a large grapevine growing wild where they grazed their

  It's December and Christmas is around the corner!! Is your tree up? Mine is and this year it's covered with a new selection of wine label ornaments! So far not even naughty Dr. Watson has attempted to climb it. Perhaps she'll received more than a lump of coal in her stocking this! What does your horoscope say you should try drinking in December? Read on and find out! Aquarius (January 20 - February 18) Take this month to stop and check in with yourself. How has the past year affected you? Often we blow off a lot of the external things in our life and don't pay attention to how much

  While for reasons beyond my ken Karasakız is not more popular in Turkey, it is certainly one of the country's most facile grapes. Also called 'Kuntra' the Karasakız (kar-ah-sah-kiz) grape is the oldest grape variety grown on the island of Bozcaada. Records show it growing here for at least 500 years. It likes a warmer climate and, in addition to Bozcaada, also grows on the southern part of the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Sea of Marmara island, Avşa. On Bozcaada, the grape is known exclusively as Kuntra. Here, where high winds can severely damage grapes and grape leaves, vines grow in head-trained, goblet bushes to protect the grapes. Elsewhere where