Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi eu nulla vehicula, sagittis tortor id, fermentum nunc. Donec gravida mi a condimentum rutrum. Praesent aliquet pellentesque nisi.

White Wine

HomeWhite Wine (Page 47)

  It’s so hot and humid in Istanbul these days it seems that even the Internet can’t be fussed to work. Knock on wood but it seems to have recovered at least a little today, although I have to compose all my emails in advance so I can hit ‘send’ during one of its working moments. But to the point: I’ve had a couple wine now from Corvus and I’m not sure that I’m a fan. Could be I’m just picking the wrong grapes. The Corvus Teneia is a varietal wine made out of the Çavuş grape. Corvus Teneia 2012 Tasting Notes Çavuş is a greenish-gold grape native to the Turkish island of

  Vinkara is fairly widely available here in Istanbul and produces several labels: Winehouse, Reserve, Vinkara, and Quattro. They’re not my favorite producer but since I’m I’ma  drive to try all the Miskets made in Turkey I decided to give the Vinkara Quattro Dömi-Sek a go. This is the first of the Miskets I’ve tried that has truly been a semi-dry. Quite probably that’s why the  Vinkara Quattro Dömi-Sek wasn’t a favorite for me. It was not at all bad and I think, even at 35TL a bottle, I might like to give it another try and see what I think of it a second time around. I went into this

  The Leona Bloom is yet another winner in the Misket family! I’ve only tried one wine from Leona in the past, a Kalecik Karasi/Merlot blend I didn’t much care for; however the Leona Bloom was quite lovely. Just sweet enough to not be dry, quite easy to drink and very aromatic with beautifully pronounced florals. As with the previous Miskets, the Leona Bloom had a lovely pale, clear yellow color and floral nose but what made it stand out from the previous Misket wines I’ve tried was how strong the orange blossom aromas were. Since the orange blossom aspect of the Misket is my favorite part of the wine

  I am making it my mission this summer to try all the Misket wines produced in Turkey! And so far all of them are winners. Doluca’s Safir semi-sweet Misket is no exception. Before I wax poetical about its orange blossom and honeysuckle flavors, a little technical information about the Misket grape is needed, I think. Misket (or Muscat for us Westerners) grapes come from Izmir along the Aegean. The wines they produce run the gambit between “dry” to dessert. I say “dry” though as my personal experience, with any Muscat, not just Turkish, is that a so-called “dry” Muscat leans a little closer to semi-dry than straight up dry. Doluca

  The Diren Narince was a pretty decent Narince. I haven’t had many wines from this maker yet but this boded well for the rest. In any case I found it nicer than the Barudi Narince from a few weeks ago as that one was too oaky for me. The 2010 Diren Narince was a nice light straw color. It was floral and mildly oaky on the nose. I guess I would describe this as Chardonnay adjacent which makes sense as Narince is often equated with Chardonnay. There was definitely some oak happening here but it tasted, to me, more like it was treated with oak versus actually having been oak

  In an effort to start drinking more white wines to match the warming weather I picked up a bottle of the 2012 Ancyra Muscat at Carrefour and fell in love! Muscat grapes are of course more widely known for being made into dessert wines but you can find the occasional “dry” Muscat. Although semi-sweet is really far more accurate a descriptor. With a pale straw color with a delicate, floral nose, a muscat’s flavor profile includes: orange blossoms, honey, honeysuckle, basil, roses, mint, bergamont, lemon balm, daisies, grapefruit, and melon. Daises, that’s a new one. To me this is a really interesting flavor profile and I would have liked to been

  I am becoming a huge fan of the folks making wine over at Pamukkale. I think this is the fourth wine of theirs I’m reviewing? And so far every one of them has been a win. A few weeks ago I reviewed the semi-dry so this week it’s the Pamukkale Senfoni dry Sultaniye. Like the semi-dry, the Pamukkale Senfoni dry Sultaniye was a hair sweeter than I’d expect from a pure dry wine but it was definitely a far cry from being sweet. Floral and oaky on the nose and a pleasing goldeny color, the Pamukkale Senfoni dry Sultaniye was nice before I even had my first sip. And after that I wanted another! I

  I’ve had the Sultaniye grape a few times now but haven’t experience the Emir. And, frankly, because Kavakalidere’s 2012 Sade Sultaniye Emir was a less expensive wine I went for it. I won’t make this mistake again. The Sade Sultaniye Emir was very pale in color, almost colorless really until the light hit it showing a pale yellow color with hints of green. The nose was rather pleasant. In fact it smelled green, not in a grassy way but in a kind of green apple way. I also caught some floral and oak tones in the nose. It was in the flavor where the Sade Sultaniye Emir lost me. It

  Turkey has a lot of great food. But you really can only eat bread and meat for so long. Luckily I have found fantastic places for Thai, Korean, burgers, and even pulled pork. What I haven’t found is decent Chinese. Not that there’s not Chinese food in abundance here, because there is. But every time I’ve tried it hasn’t gone well. So when a friend posted on Facebook that she made a fiery pepper chicken similar to the dried pepper chicken at DC’s fabulous Szechuan Pavillion, I had to try to make it. The recipe is actually pretty easy and I only had to make a couple substitutions; for