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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 29)

By 0Rose Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  While I have embarked on a journey to learn to love rosé, that's not why I bought this one. Of all the wine tasting themes events I've done, one theme I'd never done was pink wine. To correct that, I planned one ages ago and bought all the wine. Then. Pandemic. The wine sat, and sat, and sat some more. By the time I finally did get around to hosting a Drink Pink tasting (which I did a few months ago), all the pink wine I'd previously purchased had sat so long that I couldn't get the same vintages. So, you know, I drank them myself. One of those wine

By 0European Wines, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Based on the Ionian island of Corfu, the Grammenos Family launched its winery in the late 1980s, before the Corfu PGI (est. 1996) even existed! The family has vineyards in several locations on Corfu including the village of Sinarades, about 2 km from the winery, as well as in Skafonas, Korakas, and Vouni on the west of the island, at an altitude of 250-300 meters. They grow several varieties but one of their main grapes is Corfu native, Kakotrygis. Κακoτρυγης (Kakotrygis) gets transliterated in several ways. I've seen it as both Kakotrygis and Kakotrigis, but it can also apparently be spelled: Kako Tryghi, Kakotriguis, Kakotriki, and Kakotryghis. Κακό (kako) means

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Quite some time ago I had the opportunity to attend a vertical tasting of some of Doluca's Karma wines. These were the red blends, mainly Shiraz Boğazkere and Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü blends. You can see my review of all of those here. Since then, I also got my hands on a bottle of the white Karma. Which frankly was not entirely recently. My drinking sadly outpaces my blogging by rather a lot! While the Karma line includes three red blends (the aforementioned Shiraz Boğazkere, Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü, and a Merlot Boğazkere), there is only one white in the series. Like the other three wines, the white blends together an

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  The Hasandede grape hails from Turkey's Central Anatolia region. It has historically not been shown a lot of love by the winemaking community. But hopefully, this is changing. Kalecik-based Vinkara first began using it some years ago and makes a varietal Hasandede as part of its Winehouse line. Gelveri, located between Cappadocia and Aksaray, uses it to make amphora-aged skin-contact wines. And now Polatlı winery Gordias has jumped on the fan wagon with its own Hasandede. 2020 was a big year for Gordias as owner and winemaker Canan Gerimli released three new wines made from: Hasandede, Fesleğen, and Narınç, the latter two about which I posted previously. Her wines

By 0Red Wine, Rose Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Female owned and operated Tafali Bağcılık is one of Turkey's newest wineries. Based in Kalecik, join the ranks of wineries like Tomurcukbağ and Vinkara in focusing on the local grape, Kalecik Karası. So much focus in fact, that they make only two wines. Both 100% Kalecik Karası, one a rosé, the other a red. But before we get to the wines, a bit about the winery and the women behind it.  [caption id="attachment_16287" align="alignleft" width="225"] Me, in lieu of a label![/caption] Fatma Yiğit and Alime Cicerali are agricultural engineers who became friends while working together. They decided to explore a different side of agriculture and started a small vineyard in

By 1Amber Wine, Amphora, Orange Wine, Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  For August's #WinePW event, host Gwendolyn from The Wine Predator, has invited us to explore amphora aged wines from around the world. You can view her invitation here. If you're reading this early enough, whether you write about amphora-aged wines or not, please feel free to join our Twitter discussion on August 14 at 8am CST / 11am EST / 6pm GMT+3. Based on every archeological and history museum I've ever visited, pottery is the most commonly found, left behind by previous civilizations item. It's the old museum bait and switch

By 0Rose Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  In a somewhat recent wine tasting, Drink Pink!, I featured a series of rosé wines. I'd had many of them before. Two were go-to rosés for me. However, one was completely new to me. And I really rather liked it. Selefkia Blush. Starting right off with the blend, it combines Patkara (80%) and Gök (20%). The grapes were co-fermented with four hours of skin contact. These are both grapes that are slowly starting to emerge onto the market thanks to Mediterranean wineries like Selefkia. Patkara is a black grape and Gök white. Have you heard of Mersin? This is a pretty well-known coastal city on the Turkish Mediterranean. I've never

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Kerküş is not a grape we talk about a lot. In fact, I have written about it only once after visiting Shiluh in Mardin. A well-known Assyrian winery, Shiluh blends Kerküş with another grape native to south east Turkey, Mazrona. However, it's never been available before as a single varietal. Now, thanks to newly opened Assyrian winery Midin Şarapçılık, it is.   [caption id="attachment_16265" align="alignright" width="225"] 60+ year old Kerküş vine[/caption] Midin Şarapçılık sits closer to Şırnak than to Mardin. The family behind the winery, the Salibas, have inhabited the Midin village (or Öğündükköyü as it's known in Turkish) since the 1500s. Recently, the family decided to open their own winery

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Shortly before Christmas I saw that my local shop, La Cave, would soon be stocking a new wine from Kayra. Kayra might be one of the giant wineries here in Turkey but their wine, especially the mid range and top shelf, is solid. Then I saw it was a Semillon and I immediately contacted La Cave to ask him to put aside two bottles for me.  While Semillon may not have as long a history in Turkey as say, Merlot in northern Italy, it has grown here for close to 100 years now. Considered by many to be a traditional, if not native, variety, Semillon gained popularity here early

By 0Rose Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  [caption id="attachment_16139" align="alignleft" width="225"] Pürneşe red label[/caption] Pürneşe is a semi-new series from Vino Dessera. Occupying a place in the winery's mid-range line up, the Pürneşe series includes a red blend and a blush. I have had them both but it was the blush that really stood out for me. Vino Dessera brings in grapes from vineyards across Turkey. For the Pürneşe Blush, they used Çalkarası and Kalecik Karası from Denizli in the western Aegean. Kalecik Karası we frequently see as both varietal and blended rosés. Very few wineries really work with Çalkarası though. The exception to that has been Paşaeli and it's nice to see other wineries, like Vino Dessera,