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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 6)

  Halfway through Advent and time for a rosé! We couldn't do just any rosé for this though. Clearly, we needed something different, special, new.  Advent day 17 Doluca Signium Rosé, 2022 Doluca's Signium line represents the pinnacle of the winery's selection. Until this last year, the wines have been red and white blends. But then came the rosé, a 100% Pinot Noir.  Beautiful peony pink with shades of onion skin in the glass, the wine practically glowed! Not in that awful, radioactive fake rosé way. But in a pure, promises of good things way. But, intense nose here full of cranberry, pink grapefruit, red currants, black currant leaf, and laurel. Nice acidity

  This particular wine is another review long in coming. I opened it last winter for Open That Bottle night. I bought this when I visited Barbare to interview the owner for my book. That must have been six years ago now? Barbare wines are generally fairly easy to access, but these premiere varietal wines less so which is why I'd been holding onto it.  Worth. The. Wait! Advent day 15 Barbare Premiere Mourvedre, 2012 This 100% Mourvedre aged for 36 months in French oak. Knowing that it would be tight out of the bottle, I opened it, decanted it, then went to Saturday evening Mass before coming home to make dinner and

  To begin, I must admit that I'm cheating a little on this one. I actually opened this wine ages ago but never got around to posting about it. Kastro Tireli's first, and for a long time only white wine was a Viognier-Narince blend. In the spring of 2022, the winery released a two new wines, a Narince Reserve  and this Viognier Reserve as varietal wines. [caption id="attachment_19742" align="alignright" width="333"] Even Dr Watson was curious![/caption] Advent day 12 Kastro Tireli Viognier Reserve, 2018 Warm lemon color on the pour. Aromas of pear compote sprinkled with brown spice and a dash of vanilla cream floated out from the glass. Pure silk texture glided over the

  My love of Ma'Adra's Pinot Noir and Carbonic Maceration Öküzgözü (one of the only Öküzgözü wines I like), I have document well and thoroughly. Most of their other wines I explored in my early Turkish wine days and haven't revisited. Until now. Advent day 11 Ma'Adra Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2018 Sigh. Ma'Adra went with the heavy format bottle for this one. Heavy bottles does not mean quality wine, people. I don't harp on about the environment but, come on. This one is easy. The wine filling the unnecessarily heavy bottle, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged for 24 months in French Bordeaux barrels.  Deep, opaque ruby color that was initially very tight in

  Week one of Advent challenge has been met and I'm still going strong! I bounced around the globe during the first week so decided to open week two back at home. Although "home" is a little bit of a stretch when the wine comes from the opposite end of the country to Istanbul. Advent day 9 Midin Miras (red), 2021 Midin's Miras red wine blends together mostly Öküzgözü and Boğazkere with small additions of the regional grapes Gavdoni and Raşegurnık aged for 10 months in oak.  Opaque purple-ruby in the glass with bramble fruit compote, cedar, forest spices, and vanilla aromas. Medium tannins and high alcohol (14.5%) gave the palate a fulsome

  Today's Advent wine was a new release this year from Kuzubağ as part of its sophomore wine collection. Advent Day 5 Kuzubağ Öküzgözü, 2021 The winery's first Öküzgözü with grapes sourced from its (the winery's not the grape's) home in Çal. Aged for 12 months in oak barrels.  Very purple in the glass. I'm not good at all at blind tasting, but if you're looking at something you know is Turkish and it's super purple, it's probably Öküzgözü. Initially oak heavy on the nose with vanilla, sweet candied fruits, violets, and spice. Tannins were almost plush with figgy/date, caramel, and carob flavors that dropped off pretty fast. For my two cents, not as

  Created by Göknur Gündoğan and Işık Gülçubuk, the Wine Experience Project was launched at the end of 2020. Per the group's mandate, The Wine Experience Project respects vine, wine, and are “winebassadors” who include a mix of winemakers, wine writers, retailers, and select foreigners. Select indeed, with some omissions. Ahem. Advent Day 4 Wine Experience Project Kalecik Karası, 2021 The project's freshman (and so far only) wine was a Kalecik Karası made with grapes sourced from the Kalecik-based winery Tafali's. The grapes fermented in stainless steel tanks before aging on the lees for eight months. Bottled with no oak aging.  The wine poured the medium-opaque brickish red one associates with Kalecik Karası. Lovely aromas

  Several years ago, I tried to blind taste wine every day during Advent. That was a challenge. Partially logistically. I only thought about it a few weeks before Advent began and, even though I disguised all the bottles, I remembered what at least several of them were. Plus drinking and posting in a day was hard! This year, I'm taking an easier route. Simply posting about one wine every day. These mostly won't be long posts with lots of background information about wineries and grapes. More like quick and dirty reviews! So, let's get to it! Advent, Day 1 Kavaklidere Misket, 2022 I've seen this wine around for ages and ages, one

  The lovely Lisa Morrow, author of several books about life as an expat in Turkey and Inside Out Istanbul asked me to write a guest post for her site. I am very happy to share that she posted it yesterday and hope you all enjoy it! Where to have a drink in Istanbul this festive season When I first moved to Istanbul, I lived in an area of the city called Cevizlibağ. Generally foreigners don’t know it and most Turks’ reaction is along the lines of “uuufff, why?”. The why is a boring story and so is the area. It mainly consists of apartment blocks, a few small markets, a