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Turkish Wine

HomeTurkish Wine (Page 67)

  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,

  I love the Suvla Sauvignon Blanc. Love. So when I was recommended the Suvla Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend I was only too happy to try it. I don’t know much about Semillons and learning with Suvla is usually a safe bet, especially at 43TL a bottle. Suvla’s blend is very, very pale, almost colorless; but what it lacks in color it makes up for in the nose. Floral, peach, and grapefruit. On the palate I got a lot of butter but also peach, citrus, and a little mango I think. Crisp, minerally, and with a long, clean finish make me think that this medium bodied white would pair nicely with medium

  I’ve been through Suvla’s Kabetepe red, white. and blush so I figured I should bookend the series and get the last one, the rose. I’m still a little resistant to pink wine but a) it’s only 15 TL and b) it’s Suvla so how bad could it be? Not very, I’m happy to say. In the glass the Suvla Kabetepe Rose was a bright rose, salmon color with a lot of berry and floral scents in the nose. It even smelled dry if that’s possible. On the palate it was low in tannin,  with medium acid, and a long dry finish. Crisp with berry flavors, it was refreshing and paired really well with

  Now is the time I try to switch to white or rose wines to beat the Istanbul summer heat. Since I am really enjoying this new winery, Gordias, it seemed a good place to start my summer trend. For one thing, I really like the minimalist goat-looking logo. More importantly though-the wines are killer. I’ve been a little on the fence about Narince wines; aside from the unicorn that is an unoaked Chardonnay, I’m just not really into dry whites. I am into Gordias though so when I found a bottle of Narince at Solera (55TL) I decided to give it a go. The Narince is not a big wine,