Turkish Wine Bar Review: Bordo Şaraphane
Updated It was years ago that I first published a review of Bordo Şaraphane. Since then, the bar moved, first to Fenerbahçe
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Updated It was years ago that I first published a review of Bordo Şaraphane. Since then, the bar moved, first to Fenerbahçe
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A few weeks ago, I posted about a marathon wine tasting I did in Manisa. That tasting, hosted at Kastro Tireli by the winemakers behind not only Kastro Tireli but also Heraki, Yaban Kolektif, Sobran Bağları, and Vinolus featured the newest Erciş Karası vintage from Yaban Kolektif. I also recently wrote about the newest vintage of the Akberg Lethe Erciş Karası. But now it's time to really dig into the grape and see how it does with different winemaking techniques and how it ages. [caption id="attachment_22822" align="alignright" width="280"] Erciş Karası, photo by Yaban Kolektif[/caption] Let's get into it. Erciş Karası Erciş Karası comes to us from the northeast of Turkey, from the vast
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Last November, I had the chance to re-visit Arcadia Bağları in Thrace with US importer, Fine Turkish Wine. Zeynep generously opened so many of their wines for us. Previously, I covered some of those in a post about the Arcadia Odrysia wines. Now, it's time to take a second look, and talk about some of the others, including two of the new bubbles! Arcadia Bağları Arcadia Vineyards is a father–daughter dream brought to life in Lüleburgaz, once known as Arcadiapolis—an apt setting for their “earthly paradise.” Inspired by Zeynep Arca Şalliel's early love of wine and her desire to work with soil, she and her father Ozcan turned shared late-night
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Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample but all opinions are my own. Summer might not be when you think want to drink hefty red wines. Or maybe it is, I don't know your taste! But, since summer is when people flock to Antalya, don't miss the opportunity to visit Sagavin and taste their wines while you're there. I've always felt a little 'meh' about Boğazkere and Öküzgözü blends. Maybe it's my innate dislike of Öküzgözü, even though I know it serves a purpose. But I also think that there are so many of them on the market and only a fraction of them are truly good. This one
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As is usual for Istanbul, we seem to have skipped right over spring and jumped with both feet into summer. I am not built for summer. Neither is my non air conditioned apartment. At least I have a wine fridge (conveniently located next to my couch, I can actually pull out wine without getting up which maybe tells you a little too much about me) so, even if I'm too hot, my wine isn't. Which brings us to the most important question
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This time of year is always fun for us winos. It's usually this late spring time when wineries start to trickle release new vintages of whites, rosés, possibly bubbles, and even a few of the more crushable reds. The Paşaeli Kabuğunda Co-Ferment, which the winery first released this time last year, has been in my writing queue for a wee little bit. Now the new 2025 vintage is out and I figure now is a good time to intrigue people into looking for the new vintage. I've written about Paşaeli a couple-few times (well over two dozen times apparently!!). So, since this is already preparing to be a long post,
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My adventures with Turkish wine importer, Fine Turkish Wine, continue! Well at least the writing of them does, the adventures themselves ended in November. And it's taking ever so much longer to write about these visits than it took to make them! After two days in Trakya (aka Thrace), visiting first Arcadia, then Arda and Gürbüz Winery we headed for the Aegean. In this region, our first stop was Kuzubağ, next to Heraki, then Kastro Tireli for a multi-winery tasting, and finally for our last stop in the Aegean, we made it to Akberg. So, buckle up, you're in for another long post. Akberg [caption id="attachment_22721" align="alignright" width="328"] Güney & Rob
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Happy May and Happy May Day! And I hope everyone in Istanbul is spending today safely
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I'm actually gearing up to write another lengthy post about a winery visit I made with Fine Turkish Wine back in November. It's taking me rather forever to get through these. But before I dive into another of those, I want to take a sec for a wine I keep meaning to talk about. The HUS Bornova Misketi. HUS Şarapçılık HUS Şarapçılık has seen more than its fair share of tumult and tragedy for a young winery. Ceylan Ertörer Diaz Leon and Juan Pablo Diaz Leon met while studying in Canada. While neither ever thought about having a life in wine, during a visit to Ceyaln's family in Urla, they both felt struck
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My adventures with Turkish wine importer, Fine Turkish Wine, continue! Well at least the writing of them does, the adventures themselves ended in November. And it's taking ever so much longer to write about these visits than it took to make them! After two days in Trakya (aka Thrace), visiting first Arcadia, then Arda and Gürbüz Winery we headed for the Aegean. In this region, our first stop was Kuzubağ, then we went on to Heraki, and then on to Kastro Tireli which hosted a mega tasting for us. Kastro Tireli It's been many years since I last visited Kastro Tireli, and I'm glad we were following José. I vividly recall
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