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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 4)

By 1Red Wine, Rest of the World, Wine Reviews

  Lent was a wee little while ago. But, I've never been great about blogging about wine as I drink it. Why is Lent even important to the story? I'm glad you asked! I am a big fan of Fat Tuesday - the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent and fasting begins. Catholic fasts are pretty weak sauce when held up against other religions, but I still love Fat Tuesday. This year, I decided to go full Georgian feast and get takeout from one of Istanbul's Georgian restaurants. Naturally, therefore, I needed a Georgian wine to pair! In my wine room exists a collection of dust encrusted red Georgian wines.

By 0Rose Wine, Travel, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Label designs for wine is a big business. As with any company working on its marketing plan, a winery has to decide how it wants to present itself. Do they have an old-school Schloss or Chateau vibe? Do they want people to think of them as young, fresh, or unpretentious? Depending on the vibe they're going for, a winery might have a whole concept and their labels reflect one specific style. Or maybe they have (sometimes wildly) different styles for different wine series.  And then there are the times when a winery, with a very specific label style, releases a new line with entirely new branding. That's what happened

By 1European Wines, Greek Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Of all the wines I've been able to try from Crete's Lyrarakis Wines, its Thrapsathiri somehow fell between the cracks! With this being one of my favorite Greek grapes, I'm not really sure how I allowed such a travesty to occur. Lucky for me, a friend visiting the winery graciously brought back a bottle for me! The Lyrarakis Wines Armi Thrapsathiri marries one of my favorite Cretan wineries with one of my favorite Greek grapes for (spoiler!) a richly flavored wine full of fruits and the sea.  Lyrarakis Wines It is thanks to wineries like Lyrarakis Wines a lot of unloved and nearly lost Cretan grapes are being reintroduced to the

By 0Sparkling Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Two Suvla pét-nats (so far - dare we hope for more?) made with Yapıncak and Emir have joined the ranks of Turkish pét-nats. They aren't new, I'm just overdue in writing about them. Now that I'm finally getting around to it, I can honestly say that I'm a little in love!  I'd heard rumors about the Suvla Kınalı Yapıncak pét-nat and then got to try it at a tasting a while ago, but hadn't gone in search of it, largely because I was afraid of what the price would be. A legit fear these days. BUT!! As of June (so it may have gone up with the July ÖTV increase)

By 2Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample but all opinions are my own. Narince is such a fantastically flexible grape. We've seen it in on its own, in blends, no oak ages, too much oak aging, skin contact, sparkling, and semi-sweet. It makes a wine for every palate.  For years, Arda has made a Reserv Narince. It's a beautiful wine, one of my favorites. But, I've always wondered why the grape wasn't a regular part of its Kuşlu lineup. I am thrilled that now there IS an Arda Kuşlu Narince! And, after an email exchange with Arda's winemaker Şeniz, while I still don't know the answer to why it

By 1Red Wine, Rose Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Disclaimer: Tomurcukbağ flew me to Ankara for the experience but all opinions are my own. The wineries in Kalecik have not traditionally encouraged visiting. When Tafli opened a few years ago, they were really the first to do so. It's a shame, on several levels, that wine tourism isn't more encouraged in Kalecik. It's literally the home turf of one of the country's greatest grapes. There are multiple wineries all relatively close to one another. It's also easily accessible and a short-ish drive from Ankara. While there's no full-blown wine route here yet, Kalecik does seem to be opening up a little. First was Tafali, and now the iconic Tomurcukbağ

By 2European Wines, Rose Wine, Sparkling Wine, Travel, Wine Reviews

  This post contains affiliate links Last June I visited Sofia for the first time. What a charming little city! Which maybe sounds slightly condescending but a) I don't mean it that way at all and b) almost anywhere is little when you live in Istanbul. I had a marvelous time exploring the Bulgarian wine scene there. For people like me who don't like to drive, the city offers quite a few opportunities to learn about and experience the wine. One of the places where I got a great crash course was Tempus Vini.  Tempus Vini Kalin Kushev's passion for wine went from hobby to business when he opened Tempus Vini in

By 3European Wines, Greek Wine, Rose Wine, Sparkling Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Except for my weird friend, Roy, I don't know anyone who doesn't at least like sparkling wine. For me, it's hands down my favorite wine category. I'm fascinated by the different processes by which it is made, how each creates a different style of wine, and offers different aromas and flavors. You could take the same grape from the same vineyard and make three very different sparkling wines with the traditional, charmat, and ancestral methods. Little surprise then, that I love exploring sparkling wine anytime I travel. For sure I like Prosecco, Champagne, and Cava

By 1Rose Wine, Travel, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  *this post contains affiliate links A couple weeks ago, I flew to Izmir to give a wine tasting for a group from Roots Adventure Travel. It's been years since I last visited the 7Bilgeler winery, so I felt pretty psyched about going for the tasting. Over the years, 7Bilgeler has slowly added native grape wines to its portfolio, which reminded me that I'd recently opened a bottle of one of its newer wines: the 7Bilgeler Vindemia Rüzgar Karasakız Rosé. Karasakız While there are many grapes in Turkey I like, some of which I like quite a lot, my favorite Turkish black grape is undoubtedly Karasakız.  More well-known as Karasakız ("black gum"), the

By 2Amber Wine, Orange Wine, Red Wine, Rose Wine, Sparkling Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  How do you pair fine Turkish wine with one of the country's iconic staples, börek? That's a question I found myself asking recently.  For ages, my friend, Başak, has been telling me that she wants me to try this 'amazing' börekci in her mother's neighborhood.  Not that I dislike börek, far from it, but my börek experiences in Istanbul have always left me a little cold. She finally wore me down, but I thought, let's turn this into a wine pairing exercise. We were for sure going to be drinking wine anyway so, wine not? Börek Börek is a traditional food found throughout Turkey, the Balkans, arguably Greece with its