Chateau Nuz: Where Second Place Tastes Like First
I generally try to bring attention to wineries in Turkey that champion native grapes. However, some of the wineries here that focus on international varieties are too good to ignore. One of my favorites is Chateau Nuzun. Not only does the winery turn out well-crafted and delicious wines; it does so with sustainable practices and utter charm.
Chateau Nuzun vineyards-protecting Öküzgözü grapes from bees
Owner Nazan Uzun lends not only her name to the winery (N. + Uzun = Nuzun) but also her humor and strength of character. I love meeting with Nazan. She always has a huge smile and her energy and presence make her stand taller than her diminutive size. She imbues the winery and its wine with her strong belief in organic farming and sustainable practices. The grounds around the winery appear scraggly and unkempt because she won’t waste precious water and soil nutrients on pretty lawns. Her cellar is a natural underground cave that keeps the wines at a steady temperature and humidity level without electronic controls.
Nazan is also one of the few here in Turkey who not only understands the benefit of cellar ageing wine prior to release, but does it. The majority of wineries here push wine out onto the market as fast as possible to try to recoup some of their costs or because they cannot afford to cellar them. At Chateau Nuzun only the rosé is released in 
the year following the vintage. I think the newest red wine vintage available now is a 2015. Nazan employs this practice with not only her varietal reds and eponymous blend, but also with the winery’s “second” wine, Chateau Nuz.
Chateau Nuz, 2012
Chateau Nuzun grows all organic grapes for its wine. The 2012 Chateau Nuz blended together Cabernet Sauvignon (33%), Merlot (42%), Syrah (23%), and Zinfandel (2%). After ageing for 12 months in oak (generally 95% French and 5% American), the wine was blended then put back into a tank to settle naturally. No external fining or filtration agents are used here.
Garnet on the pour, intense aromas of red and black fruits, dried fig, moss and forest floor, and notes of spice from the oak aging hit the nose. Palate flavors were equally intense and filled the mouth with blackberry, currant, and fresh fig fruits. Dry and spicy on the tongue, almost sensationally so! Elegant and silky tannins carried the wine to a long, mossy finish. Overall medium-bodied with medium alcohol (13.2% abv) and superb balance.
Chateau Nuz, 2013
Another great thing about Chateau Nuzun winery is that both the eponymous blend and the second wine, Chateau Nuz, changes from year to year. They’re not trying to achieve a house style. Every year, Nazan invites a group of friends to taste through a line up of experimental blends. In an unusually egalitarian process, the wine to receive the most votes becomes that year’s blend. Oh to be invited to that party!
As such, the Chateau Nuz 2013 blend has a markedly different make up than the 2012. Both in percentages and in grapes with Cabernet Sauvignon (31%), Merlot (47%), Syrah (15%), Öküzgözü (4%), Pinot Noir (3%), and Zinfandel (2%). What is the same though is the 12 months oak ageing and lack of fining and filtering.
Markedly different than the 2012 with a bouquet initially both fruity and floral. Raspberry, currant, blackberry, and violet notes on top; then as the wine breathed, aromas of bay leaf, freshly cracked black peppercorn, nutmeg, and wet earth expressed themselves.
Velvety tannins present upfront unfolded intensely earthy flavors of freshly turned earth and forest floor. Juicy berries hit mid-palate before seguing into spice cake for a lingering finish.
That the Chateau Nuz blend, as the winery’s “second” wine, is created with such care and art says a lot about the winery. And if this blend is this good, just imagine how beautiful the others are!