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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 23)

  This year for October, the month of #MerlotMe, I did not have a lot of new wines to try. For the #WinePW event I paired Akın Gürbüz's new Winemaker Series Merlot with merguez sausages. Uçmakdere's Roze Merlot went with baked rosemary honey chicken, while two Merlots from Arda went with an amazing burrata eggplant dish.  For my final Merlot of the month, I opened Saranta's Chateau Murou Merlot and paired it with a plateful of nibbles. Saranta  Saranta is located in Turkey’s Thrace, just a stone’s throw from several other wineries on the Trakya Bağ Rotası (Thracian Wine Route). The majority of the winery's vineyards spread out around the winery and

  While more and more new wineries pop up in Turkey, on an almost annual basis now! Assyrian wineries are still a minority. While a lot of families in Southeast Anatolia, where the majority of Turkey's Assyrian population lives, still make their own wine at home, a few commercial wineries also produce. Up to now, the most widely-recognized name belongs to Midyat-based Shiluh. But now, Shiluh has competition in Midin Şarapçılık. [caption id="attachment_16622" align="alignright" width="201"] 60+ yr old Bilbileki[/caption] Midin Şarapçılık Midin Şarapçılık sits closer to Şırnak than to Mardin. The family behind the winery, the Salibas, have inhabited the Midin village (or Öğündükköyü as it's known in Turkish) since the

  Last year for the #WinePW #MerlotMe event, I paired a late harvest, dry, Merlot by Arda and you can see that pairing here. Knowing that Arda makes several other Merlot wines, I got a couple to further explore for Merlober! Arda Arda Bağcılık is a boutique, family-run winery located near the historic town of Edirne. Established in 2007, the vineyards are overseen by family patriarch and winery founder Ilyas Saç. In true family business fashion everyone pitches in. Ilyas’ daughter Seniz is a trained oenologist and, along with Bulgarian expert Kamen Koev, serves as winemaker. His son Yavuz, a wine scholar, manages winery operations together with his wife Bahar. A

  Hasandede is one of those grapes that doesn't get a lot love. According to 'Wine Grapes', Hasandede makes "very basic-quality white wine." Maybe that was true when the book was copywritten in 2012. But it's far from true now. And while it may not be true (any longer) that the grape makes only basic-quality wines, what sadly is true is how little we know about the grape itself. Hasandede (has-an-de-day), literally the ‘grandfather Hasan’, likely originated in Kırıkkale near Turkey’s capital Ankara. The medium-sized berries have thin-skins. They start out bright green but reach a golden green-yellow color with brown freckles by full ripeness. Prior to Vinkara making the first

  It's Merlober! What else could the #WinePW group be exploring this month than that most divisive of grapes, Merlot? This month's host Jeff from Food Wine Click!, invitation post invited us all to join in the #MerlotMe celebration and sing the praises of this grape. You can read his invitation here. Join us on Saturday, October 9 at 8am PST / 11am EST / 6pm Istanbul time and join the discussion! Just follow the #WinePW hashtag on Twitter. The Bordeaux varieties are big in Turkey. While I do not know statistics on how much vineyard area is given over to any particular grape, I do know that they are some

  If you've seen the movie, Sideways, you'll remember the infamous line about Merlot. Some attribute the movie to the grape's loss of popularity in the US. Related or not, growers pulled up some 10,000 acres of Merlot in California alone following the film's unaccountable success. Sales of Merlot were already rebounding by 2013 when #MerlotMe got its start, but the hashtag and its devoted followers I'm sure helped! #MerlotMe takes place during all of October,

  Earlier sunsets, cooler temperatures, and slate grey, rain-threatening skies are heralding the waning of summer in Istanbul. While I completely plan to continue drinking rosé wines throughout the autumn (and likely winter!) now seems like a good time to go through my spring and summer Turkish rosé notes and post about those I haven't written up yet. Kayraklı Şarapçılık Asarcık Rosé, 2019 A new-ish winery, based in the Muğla district of the Aegean, Kayraklı Şarapçılık has just a few vintages under its belt. Although the lack of an established name/quality and limited distribution doesn't stop it from charging outrageous prices for its wine. This rosé, an Öküzgözü - Merlot blend, retails at

  It must be two years now since I visited Mor Salkım in Bodrum. At the time, the winery largely catered to the droves of tourists in Bodrum and the general population in the Muğla province. One of the most beautiful vineyards I've seen in Turkey. Perfectly manicured, set on rolling hills, and marching alongside the olive trees the winery uses to produce oil. At the time of my visit, I found the wines to be pleasant but simple and somewhat homogenous regardless of grape variety. The winery has developed quite a bit, I think, since my visit. They've rebranded their wine series, got better labels, and I'm happy to

  Discussion around wine influencers and their help or harm to wine writers has been a hot topic in the wine writing world of late. Some accept influencers as a matter of course [for any industry], or even think that they’re underutilized. However, others resent them for being (possibly) unqualified and cheapening years of wine study and service that the acknowledged experts undergo. Regardless of one’s feelings on the topic, social media is going nowhere and neither are the influencers. In Turkey as in other wine countries, influencers are big, particularly on Instagram. While their role may be hotly debated elsewhere; here in Turkey they are actually necessary. Since 2013,