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Sparkling Wine

HomeSparkling Wine

  Sparkling wine is almost universally associated with celebrations. Yes, bubbly wine is a happy drink and happy drinks are great for celebrations, but that's not why the association. It is largely due to how expensive sparkling wine tends to be. People generally, therefore, save it for special occasions. Why is sparkling wine so expensive? How are sparkling wines made? Let's pop a cork and get into it! This post ended up being way longer than I expected. So, I'm trying for the first time to add a table of contents.  Table of Contents Everything You Need to Know about Sparkling Wine Traditional Method Sparkling Wine Martinotti Method Sparkling Wine Ancestral

  Well, we've made it one month into the new year. Hopefully we all made it through relatively unbruised. Now, as we head into the darkest of winter (or the hellish depths of summer depending on where you are!) we more than ever need some good news and good wine to cheers us, warm (or cool!) us, and give us the courage to soldier on.  So, what does this month have in store for each of us? Read on to find out! Aries (March 21 - April 19) February asks you to slow your roll just enough to aim better. You’re still driven, but this month is about strategy over speed. A

  Paşaeli, that great pioneer and champion of rare native Turkish grapes has done it again. The winery, never content to rescue a grape and make just one wine before moving onto the next, often does small batch experiments to see what some of these grapes can, and cannot, do.  Years ago, the winery debuted its first wine with Çakal. The grape's character is such that, black grape though it technically is, even extended maceration gives only a dark-ish rosé. Paşaeli made two wines with the grape, one pale, and one dark rosé. Now, the winery that brought pét-nats to the Turkish market, has added one more: the Paşaeli Çakal

  Cooler temperatures and grey skies mean that it is time to get cozy with warm sweaters and big wines! I used to like really full-bodied, tannic reds with lush fruit flavors when I wanted something for cold weather days. These days, though, I find these wines over-blown and too "in your face". I vastly prefer a medium-bodied red with more moderate tannins and a savory-earthy forward flavor profile. All our tastes change throughout the years. While I used to love Cabernet Sauvignon, I'd be happy to never again see another bottle of it.  What's your go-to comfort wine? Will the universe bring you something this month that will challenge

  Every once in a while, you just have to treat yourself. Even if money is a little tight, or you know what you're buying is overpriced. Such was the situation in which I found myself when I learned about the Argos Nahita Dokya Emir Brut. When I first saw this, I was excited! A new sparkling wine! A new EMIR sparkling wine! But then I saw the price.  Wine sticker shock is real here.  But then Christmas came around (yeah, I really don't write as fast as I drink), so I decided to treat myself.  Argos in Cappadocia Over the course of 10 years, Gökşin Ilıcalı transformed a small, neglected neighborhood of

  Mother of Zeus it is HOT. Why is it so hot? Once again, I do not understand summer people.  It's so hot that I cannot think of a cute way to open this month's horoscope. I offer only a wish that you're all surviving, hydrating, and have working refrigerators for your wine! Aries (March 21 - April 19) Ok Aries, here comes August—aka the month where your main hobby becomes fighting the sun with your bare hands and pretending you're not tired of everyone's vacation photos. Spoiler: you are. This month, your natural go-getter energy is peaking. Translation: you’ll start 12 new projects, abandon 9, finish 2, and forget 1 existed until

  Two Suvla pét-nats (so far - dare we hope for more?) made with Yapıncak and Emir have joined the ranks of Turkish pét-nats. They aren't new, I'm just overdue in writing about them. Now that I'm finally getting around to it, I can honestly say that I'm a little in love!  I'd heard rumors about the Suvla Kınalı Yapıncak pét-nat and then got to try it at a tasting a while ago, but hadn't gone in search of it, largely because I was afraid of what the price would be. A legit fear these days. BUT!! As of June (so it may have gone up with the July ÖTV increase)

  This post contains affiliate links Last June I visited Sofia for the first time. What a charming little city! Which maybe sounds slightly condescending but a) I don't mean it that way at all and b) almost anywhere is little when you live in Istanbul. I had a marvelous time exploring the Bulgarian wine scene there. For people like me who don't like to drive, the city offers quite a few opportunities to learn about and experience the wine. One of the places where I got a great crash course was Tempus Vini.  Tempus Vini Kalin Kushev's passion for wine went from hobby to business when he opened Tempus Vini in

  Except for my weird friend, Roy, I don't know anyone who doesn't at least like sparkling wine. For me, it's hands down my favorite wine category. I'm fascinated by the different processes by which it is made, how each creates a different style of wine, and offers different aromas and flavors. You could take the same grape from the same vineyard and make three very different sparkling wines with the traditional, charmat, and ancestral methods. Little surprise then, that I love exploring sparkling wine anytime I travel. For sure I like Prosecco, Champagne, and Cava

  How do you pair fine Turkish wine with one of the country's iconic staples, börek? That's a question I found myself asking recently.  For ages, my friend, Başak, has been telling me that she wants me to try this 'amazing' börekci in her mother's neighborhood.  Not that I dislike börek, far from it, but my börek experiences in Istanbul have always left me a little cold. She finally wore me down, but I thought, let's turn this into a wine pairing exercise. We were for sure going to be drinking wine anyway so, wine not? Börek Börek is a traditional food found throughout Turkey, the Balkans, arguably Greece with its