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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 32)

  For this month's #ItalianFWT, Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla has invited us all to explore the world of Ramato wines. You can read her invitation post here. You can join us too! Even if you haven't written a post about it, join our live Twitter discussion on Saturday July 3 at 8 am CST / 11 am EST / 6 pm GMT +3 (aka Istanbul). What is Ramato exactly? While researching ramato wines I ran across an article from Decanter that starts with this brilliant sentence: Ramato is for the wine lover who wants more from their Pinot Grigio, but don't go thinking it's just another rosé or orange wine. This

  In the game of 'follow the leader', the current fashion for Thracian wineries is to have a blanc de noir Papazkarası. This is one of the few native Thracian grapes that wineries actively work with. A black grape, Papazkarası can produce really beautiful red wines redolent with dark fruits, black olives,  purple flowers, spice, and sometimes even a hint of salinity. Very few wineries make red wines (or make good red wines) with this grape. In fact, only two spring to mind. And yet, at least four wineries make one, sometimes two, blanc de noir. At least once of which doesn't even have it on their books as

  To kick off summer, I recently hosted an online wine tasting of some of Turkey's island wines. Turkey has several islands which boast great seafood, nice beaches, old forts, beautiful scenery, and yes, wine! Many of the grapes grown on these island grow only on these islands. Happily for those of us in Turkey, we needn't trek to the islands for the wines as they're widely available on the mainland. For the tasting, I selected five wines from four different wineries. Four grapes are native Turkish but one is a Croatian transplant. Yes. Croatian. You'll have to read on to find out which grape! Çamlıbağ AyaPetro Erken Hasat, 2020 We began

  Pošip was a new to me grape when I got this bottle. I'd heard of it but hadn't ever had it. Luckily for me, I managed to source a bottle during one of my last trips back to the states. And no, the irony of buying a bottle of Croatian wine imported to the US then bringing it back to Turkey-geographically so much closer to Croatia than is Las Vegas-is not lost on me! Native to Croatia, Pošip grows mainly on the island of Korčula in the middle of the Adriatic Sea. A number of grapes grow on Korčula, including  Plavac Mali, Plavac Sivi, Maraština, etc., but the island

  Have you ever found a producer who just excels at something? For me that person is Akın Gürbüz. I enjoy all his wines (his new Sauvignon Blanc is killer) but in my opinion where he really shines is his reds. Akın Gürbüz made a new red wine? Both hands in the air, sign me up, where do I get in line?! He's recently released a slew of new wines including: Hieros Oros (a Bordeaux-style), and varietal Merlot and Cinsault. I drank, I swooned. I haven't yet posted about them here (although I have on Instagram). His Blend #1 isn't new though. I'm going back to the classics with this one.

  This month, Linda from My Full Wine Glass has challenged the #WinePW group to find those 'difficult' to pair foods. You can read her invitation post here. We'll be chatting about this on Twitter on June 12 at 11 am EST / 8 am CST / 6 pm Istanbul. Whether or not you wrote a post for the event join us! See what creative pairings the group came up with and chime in with your discoveries! For some people (myself included) any pairing brings on insecurity and nervous sweats. I do not like food pairing. And yes, I see the irony in being part of not one, not two,

  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%

  Franco Terpin's winery straddles two worlds. Well, two countries in any case. Located in San Floriano del Collio, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, the winery sits steps from the Slovenian border. In fact, Terpin is one of those Italian winemakers to also have vineyards across that border. After the fall of the Roman Empire, eastern Friuli, i.e. Venezia Giulia, got folded into the Austrian Hapsburg Empire where it joined portions of Slovenia. Then for a brief period, the Austrians controlled the entirety of Friuli Venezia Giulia when the Venezia Republic ceded control. In 1866 the western and central areas went back under Italian control, this time to the Kingdom of

  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