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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 31)

  Foça Karası has slowly and quietly snuck its way into the Turkish wine scene. This Aegean grape, like many in Turkey, takes its name from its local place of origin. In this case, the Foça district of İzmir. However, it goes by another name too. This is one of the few grapes Turkey shares with Greece where it is known as Fokiano and planted mostly on Ilkaria, an island near Turkey.  We don't see a lot of this grape in Turkey. While championed by Can Ortabaş of Urla Şarapçılık, he himself doesn't use it. The winery really putting Foça Karası through its paces is Öküzgözü Şarapçılık. Urla-based winery Urlice

  This month Linda of My Full Wine Glass has invited the #ItalianFWT group to explore Italian grapes grown outside of Italy. You can view her original invite here. Italy is home to some of the world's most iconic wines. It's long and storied history with the vine spans multiple civilizations such as the Etruscans, Romans, and Greeks. All of which have left their stamp on the wines we drink today.  Currently, researchers believe that Italy has anywhere from 350 to 600 unique grape varieties. Even if the number is "only" around the 350 mark, that still represents a quarter of the world's total cultivated grape varieties. More than France

  Vin Amoris is a very special wine from Vino Dessera. Winery owner Doğan Dönmez, in partnership with his oenological consultant Xavier Vignon, created this blend for his wife. I was able to try the 2015 vintage during a tasting on my first visit to the winery a few years ago. At the time, Vino Dessera had not released it commercially. Since then however, Dönmez released the 2016 vintage. The wine has two labels: one a deep blue, the other burgundy in color. The same wine resides behind both labels. It seems that they couldn't decide what they wanted to do for a label and put out a poll with a

  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;

  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