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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 66)

  During my buying spree at Sensus they gifted me with a half bottle of Yanık Ülke Strabon which is a Boğazkere, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot blend. It’s like a personal bottle of wine! Well, who am I trying to kid? All bottles of wine, regardless of size, are personal sized for me! The dark, dark, dense red color matched the hot, spicy, smokey nose to perfection. And wow it’s got some legs. What are “legs” anyway? When I first started drinking wine I always looked for them during the swirl stage thinking, erroneously, that they were an indication of quality. Legs are actually an indication of the amount of

  I fell a little in love with Gordias wines previously after trying the Kalecik Karası and Narınce. Then one afternoon in Sensus Galata I found MORE. More Gordias wines! Including a Gordias Boğazkere (55TL) and the “throat burner” Turkish grape has long been a favorite. I really let the anticipation on this one build and took some time to enjoy the deep, purply red color. Then on to the nose; what is that? Seriously it took me about 10 minutes to figure out what I was smelling. It was so familiar but at the same time utterly elusive-until it hit me; pine forests and leather. The nose is replete with

  You wouldn’t really know it based on the weather here in Istanbul but summer is over. I’d sad face if it weren’t for the fact that Autumn is my favorite season. Unfortunately that leaves me with a few bottles of white still in the fridge! While I’ll get around to those at some point, this makes the last wine of the Summer White Wines the 2014 Chamlija Albarino. I was in La Cave a little white ago hoping to find another bottle of the Chamlija Viognier (I really liked that one!). I did not find the Viognier but I did find a treasure trove of other Chamlija wines, both

  I’ve been shopping a lot recently at Senus which is home to the largest collection of Yanık Ülke wines I’ve seen. In fact for a while it was the only place I saw any wines by this maker (they’ve been popping up now at La Cave as well). Yanık Ülke, which hasn’t been winning any awards from me yet, has the dubious honor of producing a Muscat that is both the most expensive (50TL) Muscat I’ve had here…and the worst. If the Yanık Ülke Muscat were just the nose then it would have been a fair (although still not particularly good) wine. The aromas of apple, honey, and flowers were

  The Smyrna Sauvignon Blanc Trebbiano by LA Wines I picked up a Carrefour not too long ago. I’ve never tried any of Smyrna’s wines and since summer is still on and I needed more whites I figured why not. This was a good decision. I always hesitate a little over Sauvignon Blancs never knowing if I’m going to get something that’s on the herby and green pepper end of the scale (which I do not like) or the riper peachy and fruity end of the scale (which I do like). Because wine roulette is not my favorite game, despite how often I seem to play it here, I was

  I’m always leery of white wines but I got talked into this one against my better judgement. When I see “aged for 8 months in oak barrels” usually I run the other way. Sigh, there’s a reason we pay attention to our instincts. But with the way the TL is going these days (sorry about that, Turkey) a 97TL bottle isn’t as horribly expensive as it used to be. Out of the bottle the Suvla Reserve Roussanne Marsanne was a lot paler than I expected, a very soft yellow. The softness of the tint belied the strength of the nose which was very perfumey and full of citrus and oak. Right

  Continuing my forays into pink wine I agreed to a bottle of Suvla Blush Cabernet Sauvignon 2014. I generally like a Cab so I didn’t figure I go terribly wrong getting one that just didn’t sit as long with the grape skins. I didn’t go terribly wrong…nor did it exactly blow me way either. To start with, the Suvla Blush was a very attractive looking wine with it’s peachy, salmon-like color. The nose was also quite nice: fruity with maybe some hints of oak and a scent that was very familiar but frustratingly elusive. On the palate it was low in tannins, medium acid, and with a long finish. The majority of

  A while back E and I trekked out to the Kanyon mall to visit Macro Center-a place I have avoided for two and a half years because I heard it was addictive. Macro Center, you see, is the import grocery store. In the end I was actually pretty disappointed by it. My local Carrefour carries a lot of the same things; although I was thrilled beyond measure to find large tubs of red curry paste! No more having to get people to bring/send me the itty bitty pots of Thai Kitchen paste. I was of course hoping that the import store would have a decent selection of foreign

  I’m still excited over having found Turkish Viognier. There are truly very few dry white wines I can even tolerate let alone like and I thought Viognier was lost to me when I left the DC metro area. I won’t give Virginia props for much but they grow an outstanding Viognier. So, it seems, does Chamlija which creates a bottle worth 90-something TL (from Sensus).  We’ve already swooned over the straight up Viognier so now it’s time to talk about the Chamlija Viognier Narince blend. Pale yellow in color, the Chamlija Viognier Narince nose is a little on the flat side (often typical with Viognier) but there are soft notes

  Suvla has out a new series this year: Bigalı (running 19TL/bottle). I believe we’ve already covered the red so, in keeping with drinking more whites during the summer, it is time to discuss the Suvla Bigalı White. The Suvla Bigalı White is like a super blend combining Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chardonnay, Roussanne, and Marsanne. I’m not even sure where to begin with all of them especially as I am completely unfamiliar with the latter two. So with everything I don’t know in mind…here we go. The 2014 Suvla Bigalı White is straw gold in color.  The nose is very floral (unsurprising really with any of these grapes). On the palate it’s floral,