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White Wine

HomeWhite Wine (Page 23)

  Narince is made into fresh stainless steel aged wines, rich oak-raised wines, and traditional method sparkling wines. They are always dry. Narince is never sweet. No sooner were the words out of my mouth at a semi-recent wine tasting focusing on this grape than what did I see at the grocery? A semi-sweet Narince wine. Narince is the Black Sea grape. While many wineries work with independent growers in the region or have their own vineyards there, only Diren winery actually makes wine on site. Despite that, the winery has done remarkably little with the grape. I like the Diren Collection Narince quite a lot. I think it stands as

  This is a semi sponsored post but all opinions are my own.  While Paşaeli has built a reputation for its wines made from rescued and little-known Turkish grapes, the winery does produce a handful of wines using international grapes. In the past, these wines have all utilized black grapes. For example the Kaynaklar and K2 Bordeaux blends. Not anymore! Released last year, the Paşaeli Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş (once upon a time) marks the winery's first single-varietal white wine made with an international grape. Specifically, Chardonnay. Paşaeli Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş, 2019  Harvested from vineyards in Çal, the Chardonnay came from the vast expanse of Turkey's Aegean region. The wine is 100%

  To begin, Solaris is not a wine name, it's the grape. Developed in Germany in 1975, Solaris is a hybrid grape. Now, get ready for the geeky bits. Its parents are Merzling (itself a hybrid) and the sexy sexy grape, Gm 6493. Yup, you read that correctly. Gm 6493. With so many grapes existing naturally, why make another? In this case, Solaris, which super ripens early, was intended for those cold European regions where the sun doesn't shine so much. In addition to Germany, wineries in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Belgium plant it. So does Turkey! Nif Bağları began planting Solaris a number of years ago and

  Do not judge a book by its cover! We all know this. Sometimes though when it comes to a wine label I forget. I'm often guilty of buying, or not buying wine based on the label. I've had wines as fabulous as the label, wine as terrible on the label, terrible wine tarted up by a great label, and great wine hidden under a terrible label. The Doluca Kav Narince falls into that latter category.  This label hardly looks like the most interesting thing I've ever seen. Although to be fair I have seen far worse labels. However, it does not particularly evoke any excitement or invite one to

  Last summer during a trip to Hungary, I discovered a new (to me) grape: Kéknyelű. Little is known about this grape's history. What I know for certain though is that it makes knock out wine. Kéknyelű, which is actually pretty fun to say, fell out of favor in Hungary after the second world war because of how difficult it is to grow. A naturally late-ripening grape, it gives low yields with poor fruit set. It's also one of those odd grapes that needs another variety to help pollinate it. According to Taste Hungary, which introduced me to the grape, for this reason locals have long referred to it as the "gentleman's

  I love doing side-by-side wine comparisons. For example, when a producer makes multiple styles of wine from the same grape. So when I saw that Küp Şarap put out both a Sauvignon Blanc and a Fumé Blanc, I could not resist getting them both! Based in the heart of Turkey's largest vineyard area, Denizli, is Küp Şarap. A multi-generation, family run winery, Küp produces several series of wine. But it is best known, for its Thia line. Somewhere between entry and mid level, the wines come in at some of the most reasonable prices in the country. The quality can be a little unpredictable with them sometimes tasting like

  Just in time for international #SauvBlancDay, my new favorite Turkish Sauvignon Blanc: Saranta Chateau Murou Sauvignon Blanc. This is a hugely popular grape in Turkey. I don't, unfortunately, have any figures, but Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay definitely compete for the most popular white grape here. The majority of wineries boast at least one in their catalogue. It comes as a varietal and in blends. Sauvignon Blanc here ages in stainless steel and displays a crisp and racy character. We're also seeing more and more oak raised "fumé blanc" styles. One winery even has a botrytized sweet Sauvignon Blanc. The only thing we're missing is a sparkling! Saranta has been making

  Narince is perhaps the most ubiquitous of the native white Turkish vitis vinifera. However, its popularity has little to do with wine and more to do with its leaves.  A somewhat late ripening berry, Narince is harvested in the second half of September which provides a unique challenge to many winemakers. The vast majority of Narince vineyards in Tokat are owned not by wineries but third party growers who sell the grapes to winemakers and the leaves to other companies. Stuffed grape leaves (sarma) are made not only traditionally but almost exclusively with the leaves from Narince grapes. Unfortunately, the leaves reach peak ripeness and are harvested long before

  It was recently pointed out to me that I never posted a list of my favorite wines from 2020. In fact, I have not posted a list like that since 2017! How embarrassing. However, I feel happy that someone reads this often enough to have noticed the oversight! We can all agree that very few of us enjoyed 2020. At least I had wine to cushion the blow! Below is a list of my favorite Turkish wines that I tried this year (in no particular order). Unfortunately my typing is a lot slower than my drinking so I haven’t posted reviews of all of them but for those I

  The #WorldWineTravel blogging group continues its virtual exploration of Spain this month with a trip to Rías Baixas! Host Linda from My Full Wine Glass invited us to grab a bottle from Galicia and chat. Known as "Green Spain", this region in northwest Spain is wet and cool and produces some fantastic wines. It's also got a great double meaning as April is Earth Month! Linda gave a great primer on the area in her invitation post (which you can read here). And I got my bottle so let's get to it! [caption id="attachment_15873" align="alignright" width="400"] Map borrowed from RiasBaixasWines.com[/caption] Rías Bai