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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 81)

  I have so many fond memories of the Prodom Syrah Petit Verdot Cabernet Franc blend. It was the first truly beautiful Turkish wine I had. It was the wine that made me realize both that Turkish wine could be amazing and that (at 120 TL at La Cave) that I was probably going to have to pay for amazing wine. Why did I fall so hard in love with this wine? Well tannins for one thing. Every time I treat myself to a bottle of this I’m reminded again of the very niiiice tannins it has, and I loves me some tannins. But I get ahead of myself. The nose is

  Every time I visit the Suvla shop in Cihangir I inquire as to whether or not something new has come out. Last time I hit a jackpot. Suvla has a new Kirte. I’ve previously blogged about the 2011 Kirte and the 2010 so it’s time to see what’s going on with the 2012 Suvla Kirte! Suvla’s Kirtes are the same blend of wines as their Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc blend which remains one of my absolute favorite Suvla wines. However, unlike the (unnamed) blend, the Kirtes are oaked. The extra attention also reflects in the price. Whereas the blend hovers around 28TL/bottle, the Kirtes are in the 40TL

  During my buying spree at Sensus they gifted me with a half bottle of Yanık Ülke Strabon which is a Boğazkere, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot blend. It’s like a personal bottle of wine! Well, who am I trying to kid? All bottles of wine, regardless of size, are personal sized for me! The dark, dark, dense red color matched the hot, spicy, smokey nose to perfection. And wow it’s got some legs. What are “legs” anyway? When I first started drinking wine I always looked for them during the swirl stage thinking, erroneously, that they were an indication of quality. Legs are actually an indication of the amount of

  I fell a little in love with Gordias wines previously after trying the Kalecik Karası and Narınce. Then one afternoon in Sensus Galata I found MORE. More Gordias wines! Including a Gordias Boğazkere (55TL) and the “throat burner” Turkish grape has long been a favorite. I really let the anticipation on this one build and took some time to enjoy the deep, purply red color. Then on to the nose; what is that? Seriously it took me about 10 minutes to figure out what I was smelling. It was so familiar but at the same time utterly elusive-until it hit me; pine forests and leather. The nose is replete with

  You wouldn’t really know it based on the weather here in Istanbul but summer is over. I’d sad face if it weren’t for the fact that Autumn is my favorite season. Unfortunately that leaves me with a few bottles of white still in the fridge! While I’ll get around to those at some point, this makes the last wine of the Summer White Wines the 2014 Chamlija Albarino. I was in La Cave a little white ago hoping to find another bottle of the Chamlija Viognier (I really liked that one!). I did not find the Viognier but I did find a treasure trove of other Chamlija wines, both

  I’ve been shopping a lot recently at Senus which is home to the largest collection of Yanık Ülke wines I’ve seen. In fact for a while it was the only place I saw any wines by this maker (they’ve been popping up now at La Cave as well). Yanık Ülke, which hasn’t been winning any awards from me yet, has the dubious honor of producing a Muscat that is both the most expensive (50TL) Muscat I’ve had here…and the worst. If the Yanık Ülke Muscat were just the nose then it would have been a fair (although still not particularly good) wine. The aromas of apple, honey, and flowers were

  I’ve been really lax about posting the Hungarian guest wines! I still have something like four to go! So on that note, next up is the 2012 Gelleri Cabernet Sauvignon. I quite liked this one. If I recall correctly we may have gone through the Gelleri stall’s stock of this one evening. We started out as four people and by the fourth or fifth bottle we’d collected a few more disgruntled colleagues. Each new person joining us went to get another bottle. The drinks stalls had a 500 Fiorent deposit on glasses and you could return them to any of the wine vendors to get back the deposit. Or

  The Smyrna Sauvignon Blanc Trebbiano by LA Wines I picked up a Carrefour not too long ago. I’ve never tried any of Smyrna’s wines and since summer is still on and I needed more whites I figured why not. This was a good decision. I always hesitate a little over Sauvignon Blancs never knowing if I’m going to get something that’s on the herby and green pepper end of the scale (which I do not like) or the riper peachy and fruity end of the scale (which I do like). Because wine roulette is not my favorite game, despite how often I seem to play it here, I was

  I’m always leery of white wines but I got talked into this one against my better judgement. When I see “aged for 8 months in oak barrels” usually I run the other way. Sigh, there’s a reason we pay attention to our instincts. But with the way the TL is going these days (sorry about that, Turkey) a 97TL bottle isn’t as horribly expensive as it used to be. Out of the bottle the Suvla Reserve Roussanne Marsanne was a lot paler than I expected, a very soft yellow. The softness of the tint belied the strength of the nose which was very perfumey and full of citrus and oak. Right

  Aside form a late harvest white I have yet to open, the vast majority of wines I brought home from Hungary were reds. However a talkative young man at the Dorgicesi hut convinced me that I should try a wine made from a traditional Hungarian grape and got me to give their Juhfark a try.  For 1200 HUF (just over $4) what could it hurt? Absolutely nothing, that’s what it could hurt. Or couldn’t hurt more accurately. If scents are colors then the color of the Juhfark and the nose match perfectly. The wine is a beautiful golden color that seemed almost reflected in the hints of honey in the