Yesterday's post wasn't part of the Advent challenge per say
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Today's Advent wine was a new release this year from Kuzubağ as part of its sophomore wine collection. Advent Day 5 Kuzubağ Öküzgözü, 2021 The winery's first Öküzgözü with grapes sourced from its (the winery's not the grape's) home in Çal. Aged for 12 months in oak barrels. Very purple in the glass. I'm not good at all at blind tasting, but if you're looking at something you know is Turkish and it's super purple, it's probably Öküzgözü. Initially oak heavy on the nose with vanilla, sweet candied fruits, violets, and spice. Tannins were almost plush with figgy/date, caramel, and carob flavors that dropped off pretty fast. For my two cents, not as
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Created by Göknur Gündoğan and Işık Gülçubuk, the Wine Experience Project was launched at the end of 2020. Per the group's mandate, The Wine Experience Project respects vine, wine, and are “winebassadors” who include a mix of winemakers, wine writers, retailers, and select foreigners. Select indeed, with some omissions. Ahem. Advent Day 4 Wine Experience Project Kalecik Karası, 2021 The project's freshman (and so far only) wine was a Kalecik Karası made with grapes sourced from the Kalecik-based winery Tafali's. The grapes fermented in stainless steel tanks before aging on the lees for eight months. Bottled with no oak aging. The wine poured the medium-opaque brickish red one associates with Kalecik Karası. Lovely aromas
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Yes, I've set myself with this wine a day for Advent challenge (which I already regret) but today is also #CabFranc Day! So, I thought it would be a perfect day to talk about this Romanian Cabernet Franc that I received as a gift. Advent Day 2 Crama Ferdi Cuvee Francisc, 2021 As the name indicates, this Crama Ferdi wine is a cuvee, not a 100% Cabernet Franc. In this case, the blend includes Cabernet Franc and Merlot aged for 14 months in oak. Initially, the wine showed vanilla and stewed fruit aromas then slowly unfolded to reveal spice and cola notes. Very smooth on the palace with almost no discernable tannin
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The lovely Lisa Morrow, author of several books about life as an expat in Turkey and Inside Out Istanbul asked me to write a guest post for her site. I am very happy to share that she posted it yesterday and hope you all enjoy it! Where to have a drink in Istanbul this festive season When I first moved to Istanbul, I lived in an area of the city called Cevizlibağ. Generally foreigners don’t know it and most Turks’ reaction is along the lines of “uuufff, why?”. The why is a boring story and so is the area. It mainly consists of apartment blocks, a few small markets, a
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Since November seems to have forgot how to be autumn, we'll see what kind of weather December has in store. The seasons here can be such a rollercoaster throwing ups and downs and twists and turns at us. Much like life itself does. And as we approach this final month of 2023, many are taking stock of what happened during the year and making plans and resolutions for the year ahead. Me, I'm ignoring the future. It'll always be there tomorrow. December is all about Christmas and I cannot wait to put up the tree and dive into Christmas music and movies. So yeah, we all have a different approach
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I get the feeling that people's minds mostly go to the Cabernets and Sauvingon Blanc when Akın Gürbüz's name comes up. To an extent that's fair. He began with French grapes and some of his higher-end wines come from those. However, that's doing him and his catalogue a disservice. He makes excellent wine with quite a few native grapes including: Kalecik Karası, Karalahna, Papazkarası, and Öküzgözü. If he weren't behind the grapes, would he label them under his Winemaker's Selection series? Gürbüz Öküzgözü, 2018 Gürbüz's winery sits firmly in Thrace with most of his vineyards in southern Thrace running down to the northern Marmara. However, some of his grapes come
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Did you know that I love Karasakız? Do you know the Karasakız grape at all?? Even if you live in Turkey and don't know, I forgive you (assuming you care!). It's an entirely underrated and underutilized grape. My first introduction to Karasakız came from Suvla. My early days of Turkish wine discovery were largely thanks to Suvla. They made quality wines with decent price points. Sadly, over the years, they seem to have begun focusing more on the price points than the quality. Despite which, Suvla remains one of the champions of Karasakız. Along with Corvus, Paşaeli, and also recently Yaban Kolektif, Karasakız doesn't get a lot of attention. Now
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This month, I am hosting the #WinePW group's exploration of heritage and traditional grapes. I will attempt to host a chat on Threads tomorrow, Saturday, November 11 at 8am PST / 11 am EST / 7 pm Istanbul. Well, I mean, I will be hosting one. How successfully I shall do so remains to be seen! Heritage grapes in Turkey Heritage, or traditional grape varieties are those that have been grown not in their native land for a long time. Think Zinfandel in America (or really any vitis vinifera in America!), Shiraz in Australia, Pinot Noir in Germany, etc. How long is a long time? Well
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This month, the #ItalianFWT group is exploring the wines of Piemonte and/or Valle d'Aosta. Culinary Cam will be hosting a Twitter (I refuse to call it X), on Saturday, November 4 at 8am Pacific/11am EST/6pm Istanbul. You can read her invitation to the event here. Lacking any wine from the Valle d'Aosta, I chose a wine from Piemonte. I have several on hand at the moment but my overwhelming love for anything bubbly trumped all the other wines, and so I had to choose a Brachetto. Brachetto the grape and the wine Brachetto is both a grape and a wine, both of which hail from Piemonte. The berries are dense and firm
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