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Red Wine

HomeRed Wine (Page 20)

  I am so excited to share a guest piece that Moshé Cohen of In The Vineyard With kindly invited me to write! Reviving the Lost Grapes of Turkey Turkey. The mention of this country evokes thoughts of sultans and harems, sticky sweet Turkish delights, thick coffee, and hot air balloon rides over the fantastical ‘fairy chimney’ cave homes of Cappadocia. Wine is not the first thing to come to mind. Nor is it usually the fourth or the tenth. And yet, Turkey is, and for thousands of years has been, a wine producing country. Six grapes make up the backbone of wine production (with native vs international grapes): Boğazkere, Bornova Misketi,

  Yanık‌ ‌Ülke‌ Bağları translates as “vineyards of the burnt land.” Located at 924 meters above sea level on the rocky‌ ‌volcanic‌ ‌slopes‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ dormant ‌Divlit‌ ‌Volcano, the winery prides itself on its black volcanic soil. It likes to compare itself to the vineyards and wines of Mount Etna, Sicily. To further this association, the winery cultivates several Sicilian grape varieties including Cataratto, Nerello‌ ‌Cappuccio,‌ ‌‌and Nerello‌ ‌Mascalese.  I've never had the Nerello Cappuccio. It's not something I see often on the shelf. The other two though are generally much easier to find. Yanık Ülke Nerello Mascalese, 2018 Bright ruby in the glass with aromas of mulberry, black raspberry, cherry, vanilla, and

  Meet, Öküzgözü (oh-cooz-goe-zue), the most commonly planted black Turkish grape variety. This tongue-twisting grape meaning "bull's eye" takes its name from its large, round shape and nearly black color. Originally grown in the red clay and sandy/limestone soils of Mid-Eastern Anatolia (Elazığ); Öküzgözü has spread across Turkey. Plantings now flourish in Mid-Southern Anatolia (Nevşehir / Cappadocia), Mid-Northern Anatolia (Ankara, Uşak), and Thrace (Kırklareli). While Elazığ is home to Öküzgözü, relatively few wineries make their home here. Many wineries either have vineyards there but wineries elsewhere. Or, more commonly, contract with independent growers for their grapes. With three exceptions: Kayra, Eskibağlar, and Kuzeybağ. Kayra, one of Turkey's wine giants, uses its

  We spent Valentine's Day in Istanbul under both our regular weekend lockdown and a blanket of snow this year. Since we couldn't go out for Valentine's, I invited a couple people from my pandemic bubble over on Monday for a Galentine's Day wine tasting. The wines: four wines based in the Çalkarası grape from Paşaeli Wines. I've had all four wines individually but have really been wanting to open them together. Since even I have my limits I knew I needed help to open them all at once! I recently wrote conducted an interview with Paşaeli Wines owner Seyit Karagözoğlu for the Vintner Project. There are a lot of

  Friday heralded the Year of the Ox in the Chinese calendar. The day before happened to be a good friend's birthday. She usually holds a huge Chinese New Year pop up restaurant feast. However, COVID etc, that got canceled this year. Instead she hosted our small bubble for a Singaporean-Chinese new year-birthday feast. I decided to use the opportunity to see how I could pair Turkish wine with Chinese food. I brought a number of wines to the feast to cover as wide a spectrum as I could: whites, semi-sweet, rosé, amber, red

  Flipping through my wine notes recently reminded me that I haven't written about my favorite pirate-themed winery lately. Well, okay no, Barbare is not pirate "themed" (although wouldn't that be cool?!). However, the winery does take its name and label design from Turkey's most famous pirate, Barbarossa-Red Beard. If you're curious about how that came about, check out my previous post about wine and piracy! Its dubious swashbuckling aside, Barbare sets itself apart from other Turkish wineries in how it was influenced by French wine. A good deal of wineries here take their influence and cues from France. Specifically from Bordeaux. And while Barbare demonstrates a strong French influence;

  To kick of 2021, the #ItalianFWT group is embracing the cold weather. Host Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has invited us all to pair any Italian wine we like with braised or stewed meat dishes. You can view her invitation here. And since Istanbul was briefly blanketed in a layer of fluffy snow, this really was perfect timing, for me, for this theme! For this event, I tracked down some oxtail. It's not super common in Istanbul but there's a tiny butcher shop off the famous Istiklal Street that sometimes carries it. Happily, I got lucky and picked up two kilos for a braised oxtail stew. The original

  I've been taking the Wine Scholar Guild's (Northern) Italian Wine Scholar course. Even though I have a million other things I should be doing, the allure of online courses and exams, plus the opportunity to procrastinate those other things, is strong. Of course now I'm finding excuses to procrastinate this course and not study. So that's all worked out marvelously well. Why is this digression germane to a post about Turkish wine? Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blends. One of the things I've managed to retain so far from the reading is that a number of the norther Italian wine regions make blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc

  Karaoğlan is one of those Turkish grapes few people talk about and even fewer have heard about. However, I think that will soon change. This is a grape on the rise in Turkey, poised to deliver great things.  We don't have a lot of information about the history of Karaoğlan except that it has a long one in Eastern Anatolia. The grape grows largely in Arapgir Bölgesi in Malatya on the eastern side of the Euphrates Valley. The landscape is rugged and mountainous with an average elevation of 1200 meters.  The grape itself looks a lot like Öküzgözü from the neighboring Elazığ with its large, blue-black berries. Unlike Öküzgözü

  If Turkey has a traditional wine blend it would be Öküzgözü Boğazkere. These two grapes native to Turkey's eastern provinces (of Elazığ and Diyarbakır respectively) compliment one another. Öküzgözü has bright red fruits and vibrant acidity. Boğazkere adds tannin, structure, power, and savory notes. I've drunk quite a few of these blends over the years. Like anything else, some are good, some are not, and some are outstanding. Having had Öküzgözü Boğazkere blends a plenty, very few surprise me anymore. Until I had Kutman's. The Adnan Kutman winery sits at the edge of the Sea of Marmara fully on the other side of the country to the grapes' homes. The winery