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Wine Reviews

HomeWine Reviews (Page 81)

  I’m so glad I had this review pre-written for today. I’ve been sick a lot lately and with this latest cold I can’t smell or taste much. When I am unwell I waver between doing nothing, popping pills (a hold over from growing up with a mother who diagnosed us and handed out drugs from her considerable prescription collection), or attempting more natural methods. While my brother was here in October we went to my friend M’s shop in the Spice Bazaar where we discovered crystal menthol. That’s menthol. We’re not Breaking Bad over here. Breathing in menthol fumes is a great way to clear out your sinuses and I

  The first time I saw a Chamlija wine at Sensus there were only two or three of them. Now they are everywhere and I need to try them all!! Luckily Solera, La Cave, and Carrefour are getting into the game so I’m pretty well guaranteed to find a bottle of Chamlija where ever I go. This 2013 Chamlija Cabernet & Cabernet I picked up at Carrefour for…I don’t remember how much. 40-something TL? 60-something? Not a vast fortune in any case. It’s 45% each Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% of the dreaded Merlot; but since it’s just 10% we’ll forgive its inclusion. In the glass it’s more purple than

  I’ve had this bottle of 2012 Kayra Vintage Shiraz sitting on my wine rack for so long that I had to wipe off about an inch of dust when I pulled it out not too long ago to celebrate the brief return my awesome Australian neighbor. Shiraz/Syrah is not often a wine I choose. I find that it is often lighter and more cherry driven than I generally prefer wines to be but I do from time to time enjoy a jammy wine and Shiraz usually ticks that box. Kayra, based out of Elazığ, Anatolia is not a winery I talk about a lot even though I have featured

It’s been a while since we’ve featured a wine by Suvla. The problem with finding a wine producer that you really like is you (or I at least) burn through all their wines really fast and then there are no new wines to taste! That doesn’t mean I’m not still drinking Suvla wines, in fact I had a bottle of their Boğazkere recently, but it does mean I don’t post about them so often. However today we are talking about one of their newer wines, the 2014 Suvla Öküzgözü. Öküzgözü grapes usually produce a softer light to medium body wine and Suvla’s is no exception to that. On the

  A while ago I was at La Cave in Cihangir looking for new wines and picked up this Likya Pinot Meunier. I’ve never heard of Pinot Meunier and decided it was worth the 70 TL investment to find out what it was all about. Turns out it’s all about Pinot Noir. Pinot Meunier, which is one of the three grapes used to make champagne, lives in the Pinot Noir family from which it is likely a mutation. Lighter in color and higher in acid than a Pinot Noir it does share some similar flavors but has less of the earthiness often found in Pinot Noirs. Thus says Google. In the

  Funny story. Also kind of embarrassing…while I was in Cappadocia with my brother I was determined to visit the Turasan Winery which is just 10 kilometers from where we were staying. My brother was up for being dragged along so off we went to Urgup. After a really nice lunch we headed up a steepish hill and zig zagged through some street construction until we arrived at a şarap evi (wine house). It didn’t say Turasan but according to the crappy GPS on my phone we were where we were supposed to be. Yeah, no. We weren’t where we were supposed to be. But I just shrugged and went with it.

  A friend of mine was in town not too long ago and I met her at her hotel for a drink. Normally I’d have suggested Solera or one of the other wine places I like so much but she was staying at Soho House and I couldn’t not go. I am not that cool Soho House is a private club/luxury hotel with locations around the world. A new location was recently opened in Istanbul in what was the American Consulate here. Now the American Consulate is far outside the city it might as well be in Bulgaria. It’s a gorgeous building and Soho House has done a lot of expensive

  I had a while back at a Pop Up event.  At Pop Up you bring your own wine and, as I’ve seen this bottle around a lot but had yet to buy it myself I was happy to share my neighbor’s bottle. Unfortunately I was already in the bottle I’d brought so my notes from this are somewhat less than super helpful… The 2014 Arra Saranda (a sub label of Vino Dessera) blend is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and the “throat burning” Boğazkere I love so much. It’s ruby red color was a little clearer and brighter than I would expect from a blend of these particular grapes.

  As sometimes happens when I’m not sure which new wine to buy, I purchased the Diren Les Muses based on how pretty the label is. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn’t. I think this time it was a bit of a half win. The 2009 Diren Les Muses is a Cabernet Sauvignon with a nice ruby red color. On the nose I got, of all things, chocolate covered cherries. While at first it seemed a little weird it really isn’t when you think that Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its black cherry and dark berry aromas and that cocoa nib aromas can result from the oaking. It’s the

  Recently, my favorite wine blog, Winefolly, posted 99 Reasons to Drink. As much as I revere Winefolly, I think she missed a few so I thought I’d add my 2 cents! 100. You got fun new wine glasses. 101. You got a new book about wine. 102. You actually read the new book about wine. 103. You have cheese. 104. You found a new winery. 105. Because it goes well with classic black & white films. 106. Because it improves the view. 107. Because you need space on your wine rack. 108. Because red is your favorite color. 109. Because white is your favorite color. 110. And lest we forget…because it’s scrummy! Yazgan Boğazkere 2013 Tasting Notes Unfortunately this is one of those wines