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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 75)

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Everything you need to know about the 2009 Barbare Elegance is right in the name: elegant. Barbare is a top-shelf, organic wine producer here in Turkey; I’ve only had two of their wines so far but they were both amazing. Of the two, the Barbare Elegance is my favorite. A blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvédre, this gorgeous red wine will set you back a pretty penny; about 89 TL at Macro Center, 140 TL at Solera, and somewhere in between at La Cave. I brought this over to M’s a while back and we both swooned over it. The nose, reflective of the Barbare Elegance ‘s color is very dark. I got

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  This was another case of letting the guys at La Cave talk me into something. I figured for 40 TL I wasn’t taking that big of a risk with the Süryanı Şarabı Levy Matiat. I am so glad it wasn’t a larger investment. Assyrian wine Süryanı Şarabı is a traditional Assyrian wine maker from Mardin, Turkey. There are very very few Assyrians left in Turkey, many have fled due to the Kurdish conflict which has hit Mardin particularly hard. The tiny population that remains has been trying to revive the wine industry which is both a fantastic and difficult undertaking. Not only do they have to replant vineyards torn out

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  While Sherlock seemed utterly unmoved by this wine; I was not. I’m not usually a huge fan of Cabernet Franc but when Mustafa Çamlica, the owner of the Chamlija winery, suggested I try the 2014 Chamlija Cabernet Franc I wasn’t going to argue. I am so glad I took his advice. This slightly opaque, bright, garnet red Chamlija Cabernet Franc (found at La Cave for 95 TL) has a nose redolent of dried strawberries, mint, green peppercorn, jalepeno, and green bell pepper. The palate is smooth tannins, mouth-watering acid, and a long finish with lots of spicy and pepper flavors backed up with raspberry and blackberry fruits. My notes have ‘so nice’

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  A couple weeks ago I drank two of Chateau Kalpak wines with some friends and it turns out that my friend AJ knows the owner of the vineyard! Immediately Operation Wine began and we coordinated our schedules to find a weekend we might all be available to go visit Chateau Kalpak. Unfortunately, no one told Bulent Bey, the owner, our plans! When AJ contacted him and we discovered that he would not in fact be at the chateau during our planned visit we had half a day of scrambling and constant back and forth WhatsApp messaging while we figured out if we were all available to make the several hour

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  I have two favorite Turkish wines-and one is the 2011 Chateau Kalpak Twin. Chateau Kalpak is a semi newish winery, located in Şarköy on the Marmara Sea. I say semi newish in that I’ve only noticed the wines here in Istanbul for about the last 18 months or so but I believe their vines have been cultivated since the early 2000’s. Getting a bottle of Chateau Kalpak Twin is not for the faint of heart though. Suvla has the best price at 100 TL, Savoy Tobacco and La Cave are both around 115 TL, and at Solera it will set you back 140 TL (-25% if you buy it to go). Is

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  I’ve been eyeing this 2014 Urla Tempus wine for a while but it’s 195 TL at Solera and I have a hard time coughing up that much for anything. However I have found it both at the Savoy tobacco shop in Cihangir and at Macro Center for 125 TL – far more reasonable in my opinion! The Urla Tempus is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc and has a fairly whopping 15% APV. It’s a double gold winner in the US and fully deserves to be. In the glass the dark ruby red wine smelled velvety and deep. The nose was all black

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  I have only recently started exploring Kayra wines so they’re not wines that jump out at me when I’m shopping but when I saw this Kayra Versus Syrah Viognier blend I had to have it. A red-white grape blend? What?! I did some Googling and discovered that this particular blend is not all that unusual. It’s not all that usual either so I suppose it’s more accurate to say that this blend is not unheard of. The tradition of blending Viognier into Syrah has its roots (haha, see what I did there?) in France where the grapes are grown side-by-side in the  Côte-Rôtie region of the Northern Rhône Valley.

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I recently saw an Instagram post from Pamukkale showing several new wines and I had to try them. I’m a bit of a magpie and am attracted to shiny/sparkly objects so the label of the new Pamukkale Sole line attracted me right away. And for 16 TL how can you go wrong? Normally Pamukkale is not one of my go-to producers. For one thing they’re responsible for Sava which is one of the cheapest wines available here and gives a bad name to vinegar. However since I can’t afford to spend 90+ TL on every bottle of wine I drink I am always looking for quality inexpensive wines. I

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I don’t actually know where the Papazın Şarabı and Palivor Çiftliği crossover happens. I did some light Googling and couldn’t find the connection but it was the Palivor Çiftliği logo that got me to buy this so whatever the partnership is Papazın Şarabı owes at least one sale to them. Truly I bought this bottle because there’s a buck on the label-the Palivor Çiftliği logo-and I thought it would amuse my Daddy who is a hunter. This was not a light decision to pick up. Sure I got a giggle over the buck on the label but at 80TL from Carrefour this wasn’t a small investment, especially considering that the last

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Happily day two in Edirne was only about 35-36 C and not 38 because we had to bundle up several times to visit some more mosques. I was really looking forward to visiting the Arda winery but before we could get there we had to fill E’s need to see and do everything possible so we started the day at the Eski Camii (Old Mosque) located just down the street from the Selimiye Mosque. This is possibly the most uniquely decorated mosque I’ve ever visited. Rather than tiles or frescoes, the Old Mosque, completed in 1414, is almost stark of decoration except for the giant Arabic calligraphy inscriptions that