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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 23)

  Assyrian winery Midin sits farther east than any other winery in Turkey, practically at Syria’s doorstep. Located in the Şırnak province, the winery faces a number of unique hurdles. The climate is hot (so very hot) and dry. Not so friendly super conservative Muslim communities surround their small Assyrian Christian village. And they face having their village's vineyards ripped out for more profitable crops. [caption id="attachment_17458" align="alignright" width="300"] Raşe Gurnık - courtesy of Midin Wines[/caption] However, all is not bad! One excellent unique aspect of this winery is the grapes it works with. Few have ever heard of like Bilbilzeki, Gavdoni, Midin Karası, Kittil Nafs, or Raşe Gurnık. The latter

  When Arda Bağcılık first started producing wines, it focused on international grape varieties like Cabernet and Shiraz. The family-run wine has slowly been introducing native grapes. First Narince, and now the last few years, Papazkarası. Arda seems to have found its grape in Papazkarası making not one wine with it, but four. The Papazkarası series, called Gala, takes its name from the Gala Gölü (Gala Lake), close to the Aegean and near the Turkey-Greece border. Located some 170 kilometers from the winery, this is where the winery sources its Papazkarası grapes. The series includes a blanc de noir, two rosés, and a red blend. Arda Gala Blanc de Noir Papazkarası,

  Selefkia Wine, a small, family winery has been reaching for the stars since it opened in 2008. Alaaddin Çerçi, along with his wife Sakine and daughter Ebru, made a huge life change in the late 1990s when he left behind his career as an engineer to start working with grapes. Orphaned as a child, Çerçi supported his education with revenue from his late father's vineyards in the Yenisu village in Mersin. However, years later, grape sales dropped off and the vineyards fell into disuse. Feeling like he owed a debt to the grapes, in 1998 he began to reanimate the old vineyards with a view to making wine.   Selefkia Wine’s

  Lent started last week. What are you giving up? Sweets? Coffee? TV? I can tell you what I'm NOT giving up and that's wine. I like to imagine that I'm a semi-devout Catholic but I'm not a crazy person. Well. Probably not. Family history would indicate otherwise but that's a tad off topic. Amongst all the Turkish wineries, Antioche holds a special place for me. Maybe because (while not Catholic) they're also Christian which gives me a different kind of connection with them and their wine? Maybe because I have a wee crush on the incredibly sweet owner and his family? Maybe because they have introduced us to a

  For this month's Wine Paired Weekend event, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm, has invited us to explore new to us wines and grapes. My new to me grape, the Greek variety, Asproudi. Every time I go to Greece, I try to hunt down new to me grapes. I love me some Assyrtiko and Malagousia. But you can't spend your whole life drinking just two grapes! And I've barely scratched the surface of what Greece has to offer. Sometimes I pre-order wines and have them delivered to my friends. But I love to browse in shops. One of my favorites is Alfa Sigma Wine in Syntagma

  One of the newer additions to the Turkish wine scene, Kayraklı Şarapçılık is based in the Muğla district of the Aegean. Founder Orhan Kayraklı planted his organically farmed vines in the Asarcık valley between the Bozdurun and Selimiye villages. The vines, completely surrounded by mountainous terrain, grow at 250 meters. Continuous winds cool the valley making it 4-5 Celsius degrees cooler than the areas around it and contribute to significant diurnal temperature swings. Slate and gravel overlay layers of limestone and clay and the vines grow without irrigation. The wines have been available in regional wine shops for a year or more but only recently have migrated to Istanbul.

  Well, are they really the best Turkish Pinot Noir wines? Some of them are certainly the best in my opinion! But that title will give my SEO a much needed bump! Bloggy technical housekeeping aside, let's crack on with the wines! The below seven wines by no means represent an exhaustive list of Turkish Pinot Noir wines. I'm planning a separate post just for Ayda Bağları's Pinots (red and a rosé) so look for that soon! And of course I have written previously about other Turkish Pinot Noirs including: Urla Serendias, Chamlija's Müteşekkir, other vintages of the below wines, and various Pinot Noir blends like Chamlija's PaPiKa, Chateau Nuz,

  What's that saying about nothing good happens after midnight? While often associated with crime/thriller stories (one assumes because only criminals are out and about after midnight); it's become a pretty common warning. However, I think we all know that the sun's position in the sky has little do with crime. But it DOES have a lot to do with the quality of grapes when harvested and the kind of wine ultimately produced. Nyxteri (also spelled nykteri) comes from the Greek word for night: νύχτα. It is a style of wine on Santorini. Traditionally harvested at night (thus the name), although it is not a requirement and some producers do