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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 34)

  While it has been some time since my birthday (August) I still vividly recall one of the wines we drank: the Chateau Kalpak Petit Verdot 2010. Every year for my birthday I haul a suitcase full of wine, cheeses, and other delicacies to spend a night or two at my friend Istanbites' home on Büyükada. Despite my birthday being in the height of Istanbul summer heat, I don't bring only white wines. I choose a selection of white, red, bubbles, and sweet that I've been saving up all year. One special wine I chose this year was this single varietal Petit Verdot. I've had it for a few years

  While 2010 is not really that old as far as aged wines go, it’s old for the Turkish market. Finding wine commercially (frankly sometimes even at the winery) that’s more than a handful of vintages old is unusual. A lot of wine enthusiasts in Turkey have started to wonder if Turkish wine ages well or not. I cannot speak for all the wines, but this one sure did. Pamukkale Meridies Boğazkere Cabernet Franc 2010  For the Meridies Boğazkere Cabernet Franc, Pamukkale blended Boğazkere from Diyarbakır with Cab Franc from the Güney Plateau in Denizli. The Boğazkere underwent carbonic maceration to help bring out more of the grape’s fruit characteristics and

  It's #Merlober! Earlier this month I participated in the #WinePW conversation about #Merlot which you can read about here. While my original intent was to have that as my sole #MerlotMe post this month, I felt so inspired by many of the pairings the group came up with so I decide to keep going with the theme! One of the wines I featured in my original post was the 2013 Merlot from Chateau Nuzun. I realized, looking back at my notes, that I've had several Merlots from Chateau Nuzun over the last year but never wrote about any of them (other than the 2013). So that's what I want

  Misket, the Turkish name for Muscat, not only makes some of best sweet wines in Turkey but is increasingly known for quality dry wines. Most likely a child of Muscat Blanc á Petit Grains, Bornova Misketi has its own genetic characteristics and is a Turkish grape.  Although it's more common for the black grapes, like many Turkish grapes it takes its name from its place of origin. Bornova Misketi, which means "muscat of Bornova" originated around the village of Bornova just outside Izmir, Turkey's third largest city. It now grows primarily in Manisa in Turkey's Aegean region (of which Izmir is part). Bornova Misketi prefers warm climates and clay and gravel

  This week I'm continuing my #Merlober celebrations with wine pairings for two Merlots from the same Turkish winery: Claros. Claros winery comes to us from the Yavaş family. Brainchild of the father with son, Canberk, serving as winemaker. Claros keeps things simple for us. They make Merlot. Only Merlot. Possibly they should act as the Turkish representative for #MerlotMe month! The winery takes its name from tClaros he nearby ruins of ancient Greek city, Klaros. Not only does it specialize in Merlot, but Claros also makes completely unfined, unfiltered, wild ferment Merlot. When other wineries here say they make unfined/unfiltered or "limited" filtered wines, I laugh. Maybe their wines have

  Öküzgözü Şarapçılık outside Izmir is one of those curious cases we see occasionally here. It is both a bulk and a boutique winery. The bulk wine generally gets shipped straight off to meyhanes and wedding halls. Rarely, if ever, can you find it commercially. Rarely, if ever, would you want to .  A few years ago winery owner Rıfat Şekerdil turned his attention towards a more quality-driven approach to winemaking. With the bulk side of the winery generating enough profit to cover all the winery's operations, Şekerdil set aside his better vineyards to to grow better fruit. In the winery, he employed gentler methods and invested in oak barrels

  We all know Sultaniye; whether or not we actually know we do! In America we're more likely to refer to it as "Sultana" and it means raisins to us, not wine. Because few associate Turkey with wine, making the leap to think of it as a grape producer is almost as difficult. But it is, and a major one at that. In fact for Turkey we should talk first about grape production, then wine. The country is the world's sixth largest producer of grapes. However, a mere 3% gets used for wine and rakı. Most grapes are consumed fresh, made into pekmez (grape molasses), or raisins. For the

  Recently I participated in the #WinePW group's #MerlotMe conversation. You can read all about that here. I thought that would be the end of #Merlober for me. However, reading about the food and wine pairings the rest of the group did inspired me to keep going! I immediately went into my wine room to see if I had any more Merlot wines and was excited to see that I did indeed! One wine I had came from Uçmakdere-based winery Firuze. If you're not familiar with Uçmakdere or Firuze I completely understand. But (if you're local) you really should look into getting some wine from Firuze! This family winery located

  Based in the coastal town of Alaçatı south of Izmir, Gemici Family Wines/Alaçatı Şarapçılık makes wine on a small scale. In this charming little city along the Aegean Sea, the equally charming Olçay Gemici carefully vinifies his grapes in older traditional ways. For him this means anything from spontaneous fermentation to blending in small measures of sakız in his wine. Olçay uses both native and international grapes for his wine. With Sultaniye and Öküzgözü to Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, and Merlot to play with, he creates both varietals and blends.  When I visited his shop in Alaçatı a couple years ago, one of the wines I purchased was the Aya Katrina

  This month the #WinePW group is taking advantage of October being #MerlotMe month. See the original invitation from Jeff at Food Wine Click! here. I have been unaccountably excited about this theme. For years I maintained a strong 'no Merlot' policy but have really come to appreciate this grape. And understand my previous prejudice for what it was: experience with bad wine. This theme also makes it easy for me to participate in the discussion with my usual raison d'être: Turkish wine. We have a lot of Merlot in Turkey due to the general popularity of the Bordeaux varieties. Like every other wine producing country, we have really good Merlot,