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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 35)

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Flipping through my wine notes recently reminded me that I haven't written about my favorite pirate-themed winery lately. Well, okay no, Barbare is not pirate "themed" (although wouldn't that be cool?!). However, the winery does take its name and label design from Turkey's most famous pirate, Barbarossa-Red Beard. If you're curious about how that came about, check out my previous post about wine and piracy! Its dubious swashbuckling aside, Barbare sets itself apart from other Turkish wineries in how it was influenced by French wine. A good deal of wineries here take their influence and cues from France. Specifically from Bordeaux. And while Barbare demonstrates a strong French influence;

By 0Amber Wine, Amphora, European Wines, Orange Wine, Rest of the World, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  In Georgian white wine, Rkatsiteli reigns supreme. If you've had Georgian white (or amber) wine you've likely had this grape. Or maybe a Mtsvane. But, while the most common, these are not the only white grapes in Georgia's winemaking arsenal. While I do like Mtsvane wines, Rkatsiteli has never been my favorite. I tend to seek out wines from some of the less well-known grapes when I'm in Georgia. In particular I've long been a fan of Kisi. Because I do hunt them down, my last trip netted me wines made from not only the Kisi I like so well but also Tsitska, Tsolikouri, and Krakhuna. Lagvinari Tsitska, 2015 After a

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Wine Reviews

  To kick of 2021, the #ItalianFWT group is embracing the cold weather. Host Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has invited us all to pair any Italian wine we like with braised or stewed meat dishes. You can view her invitation here. And since Istanbul was briefly blanketed in a layer of fluffy snow, this really was perfect timing, for me, for this theme! For this event, I tracked down some oxtail. It's not super common in Istanbul but there's a tiny butcher shop off the famous Istiklal Street that sometimes carries it. Happily, I got lucky and picked up two kilos for a braised oxtail stew. The original

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  I've been taking the Wine Scholar Guild's (Northern) Italian Wine Scholar course. Even though I have a million other things I should be doing, the allure of online courses and exams, plus the opportunity to procrastinate those other things, is strong. Of course now I'm finding excuses to procrastinate this course and not study. So that's all worked out marvelously well. Why is this digression germane to a post about Turkish wine? Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blends. One of the things I've managed to retain so far from the reading is that a number of the norther Italian wine regions make blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc

By 0European Wines, Sparkling Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Today is Furmint Day! I love, love, love Furmint. Dry, sweet, and everything in between. Sadly, my extremely limited supply of Furmint has dwindled. And with this year of COVID travel bans I've been unable to get back to Hungary to restock. So for today's Furmint Day I'm looking back at some of the very nice wines I've had in the last few years. Furmint, or Šipon? Furmint is probably best known as a Hungarian grape variety. While several theories exist as to how the grape ended up there; we do do know it's been growing there since at least the 16th century. An offspring of Gouais Blanc and an

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Karaoğlan is one of those Turkish grapes few people talk about and even fewer have heard about. However, I think that will soon change. This is a grape on the rise in Turkey, poised to deliver great things.  We don't have a lot of information about the history of Karaoğlan except that it has a long one in Eastern Anatolia. The grape grows largely in Arapgir Bölgesi in Malatya on the eastern side of the Euphrates Valley. The landscape is rugged and mountainous with an average elevation of 1200 meters.  The grape itself looks a lot like Öküzgözü from the neighboring Elazığ with its large, blue-black berries. Unlike Öküzgözü

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  If Turkey has a traditional wine blend it would be Öküzgözü Boğazkere. These two grapes native to Turkey's eastern provinces (of Elazığ and Diyarbakır respectively) compliment one another. Öküzgözü has bright red fruits and vibrant acidity. Boğazkere adds tannin, structure, power, and savory notes. I've drunk quite a few of these blends over the years. Like anything else, some are good, some are not, and some are outstanding. Having had Öküzgözü Boğazkere blends a plenty, very few surprise me anymore. Until I had Kutman's. The Adnan Kutman winery sits at the edge of the Sea of Marmara fully on the other side of the country to the grapes' homes. The winery

By 0European Wines, Rest of the World, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  It seems difficult to think of a time when Greece and Malagousia were not synonymous. Granted my entrée to Greek wine is recent. But I feel like I learned about Assyrtiko and Malagousia at a similar pace. And yet, until the 90s, Malagousia was largely unheard of. In the 1970s Professor Logothetis from the Agricultural University of Thessaloniki rented a small plot of land from Yiannis Carras. There he planted several grapes he'd encountered on his travels around Greece, including Malagousia. While his early plantings were vinified with other grapes, Evangelos Gerovassiliou, then winemaker at Domaine Carras, quickly realized its potential. He began propagating the variety at Domaine Carras

By 1European Wines, Red Wine, Wine Reviews

  We're kicking off the new #WorldWineTravel blogging group with a trip to La Rioja! Well a virtual trip in any case! You can read host Jeff Burrows' of Food Wine Click! invitation post here. Arguably the most well-known word in Spanish wine, people mostly associate the Rioja region with the Tempranillo grape. However, there's far more to Rioja than just Tempranillo. Authorized grapes in Rioja include Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Mazuelo, and Maturana Tinta for red as well as Viura, Malvasía, Garnacha Blanca, Tempranillo Blanco, Maturana Blanca, Turruntés (not to be confused with Torrontés), Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Verdejo. Despite this broad allowance of grapes my wine does indeed come from

By 0European Wines, Red Wine, Wine Reviews

  Here in Turkey we have a grape called, Öküzgözü, which means "bull's eye." Hungary goes one step further with a wine they have: Bikavér which means "bull's blood." That's far more hardcore. But what is Bikavér? Bikavér has a fantastic origin story which I won't try to recreate but which I highly recommend checking out on Taste Hungary's blog. It is a red wine (usually a blend) made in two of Hungary's wine regions: Eger and Szekszárd. While production rules differ slightly between the two regions, a few things are consistent: A minimum of four grapes must be in the blend Kékfrankos (Blaufränkish) as the dominant blending grape