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White Wine

HomeWhite Wine (Page 44)

  A few weeks ago E&M, R, and I headed out of Istanbul. None of us had ever been to Edirne, the old second capitol of the Empire, and on a roll after Bozcaada, I wanted to visit a few area wineries, particularly Chamlija. So we rented a car and headed out to adventure. Adventure that was made both hilarious and painful long before we ever got to our destination thanks to Google Maps’ incredibly bad Turkish pronunciation. I realize it’s just a computer but come on. I mean think goodness I wasn’t the navigator because I truly had no idea what she was saying. Once we got into Edirne it

  I bought this a little hesitantly since I had bad luck with Arcadia’s Sauvignon Gris but my friends at Solera promised me it would be good and they have yet to steer me wrong. And I’ll give another chance to anyone who uses peacocks on all its labels. At I think only 75 TL (minus the 25% take away discount) this Sauvignon Gris Pinot Gris blend isn’t cheap, but it won’t break the bank. Brilliant pale gold in the glass at least this Arcadia Zesty Gris was starting off on a pretty foot. The nose was also quite lovely with white flowers, melon, and tropical notes with an underlying sweetness

  What is Gelber Muskateller? you ask. It’s Muscat, or technically yellow Muscat. How is that different from any of the other Muscats I’ve reviewed? It’s not really, it’s the same grape. It just happens to be one of the German names (there are unbelievably almost 300 variations on the grape name!) and therefore a fitting name for the Austrian owner of the Amadeus winery to give his wine. German white wines like Riesling and Gewürztramiener often get a bad rap as being syrupy sweet dessert wines when really that’s not the case. German, Austrian, and Alsace Riesling, Gewürztramiener, and Muscat wines are usually produced as dry wines, not sweet. While Austrians

  I have never had a Fume Blanc before and had to Google to remind myself what it even was. A Fume Blanc is basically just a Sauvignon Blanc that has spent some significant time in oak. The process and name were popularized by Robert Mondavi of all people in the 60s or 70s. This Sevilen 900 Fume Blanc I found at Solera, no shock there. When they told me that it had been sitting on the shelf for three years, was the only one they had, and was in fact so forgotten that they didn’t even know how much it cost I simply had to have it. And since

  Recently I let the guys at La Cave talk me into another bottle of wine; the Arcadia 2012 Pinot Gris. I do need more whites now that summer is on and at only 49 TL I wasn’t risking too much with this one. Plus I liked the art work. I’m not usually a huge fan of Pinot Gris. Like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, also known as Pinot Grigio, wines have a wide range of flavors depending on whether they were grown in cool climates (Italy and most of the USA/Australia) or warm climates (the Alsace, France, Turkey). And as with Sauvignon Blanc I prefer the warmer climate “riper”

  I found the Kayra Versus Viognier, a real gem, originally at Eleos on Istiklal. Aside from a truly respectable wine list, Eleos is worth a visit if you’re a fan of fish, awesome views, and ridiculous amounts of free mezzes and desserts. Not paying for those leaves you free to pay the rather high ticket price of the Kayra Versus Viognier. Luckily if you buy it in a shop it’s significantly less expensive (76 at Macro Center and 67 at La Cave-seriously). Regardless of what you pay though this wine is totally worth it, it’s one of the most gorgeous wines I’ve had in a while. In the glass the 2012 Kayra

  Recently I discovered that a new friend owns a yacht. And while I would love to be friends with the idle rich O is not idle, she and her husband have a travel agency here in Istanbul and the yacht is one of the services they offer. She kindly offered to take a bunch of us out a couple weeks ago for a Sunday Bosphorus cruise, and what goes better with a cruise than a nice, sweet wine like the Turasan Misket? So on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon we all met at the Kabatas dock to board the Zoe in what was going to be a three hour tour

  My second foray into the land of Mr. Jesus wines was the 2013 Isa Bey Narince (35 TL at Carrefour). Isa Bey is a “concept” wine from Sevilen produced with the principle of tek bağ tek üzüm (one vineyard, one grape). As such they produce a smaller number of bottles each year than wineries that take grapes from other vineyards. Narince is often compared to Chardonnay but other than sometimes sharing pineapple flavors I personally find them to be quite different. While it can be used to create dömisek wines, more often than not Narince is a dry wine with a sweet nose. The Isa Bey Narince follows this pattern with

  While I have discovered that Solera, my favorite wine bar in Istanbul, does not always have the lowest prices on bottles, they still win for service. I was in there not too long ago looking for more white wines for summer drinking and I fell into conversation with one of the guys about the variety of flavors found in Sauvignon Blanc wines. He suggested the Isa Bey but Isa Bey’s leans a little green and I like a riper Sauvignon Blanc. He kind of squints at me, tells me “I know what you want” then proceeds to open an 85TL bottle of Umurbey Sauvignon Blanc so I can

  Turkish wine post on not #WineWednesday…what is happening?! It turns out that I already discovered the 2014 Chamlija Albarino last summer and then somehow forgot about it. While that means I went a year without enjoying it, I had the pleasure of discovering it all over again! And since I did not realize that I’d already posted about this Albarino until after I wrote this post I decided to publish this anyway to compare my impressions. That and anything from Chamlija is worth a second look! The Chamlija Albarino seemed to have the typical flavor profile of a warm climate Albarino: tropical nose with peach, apricot, orange marmalade, white