Claros Wines 2016 Merlot
To the surprise of many, there are over 100 wineries in Turkey. Some of them produce wine on a colossal scale and are known domestically and abroad. One of those wineries people don’t often know about (even here in Istanbul) is Claros.
Claros Wines
The Yavaş family first planted their vineyards in 2006. Five years later they produced their first vintage, really “just to see how it would turn out.” Initially they enjoyed their wine among friends and family. However, they soon realized that they had too much wine to drink themselves – as if that’s a thing! So in 2017, they founded Claros Wines.
Claros is a Merlot-only vineyard and winery. Everything they do, they do by hand from planting the vines to harvesting the grapes. Which partially explains why production at Claros is limited to about 5,000 bottles a year.
The winery takes its name from the neighboring antique town, Klaros, outside Izmir. The Yavaş family very much feels a connection with the history of the land around them. So much so, that every February they hold a small Dionysian festival. They believe that the rains that fall on the mountain eventually make their way back to the nearby Aegean Sea via the stream that flows through their vineyards. So too does the wine they pour out for the God of Wine make its way to the sea.
This philosophy follows through to their wine. The Turkish soil, precious winds of the Aegean, overall terroir of the coast can be tasted in the glass. At Claros, making wine is an exercise in terroir. What is ultimately the most important to the Yavaş family is that people remember from their wines the taste of the vineyard. None of their wine sees any oak. It is wild fermented and completely unfiltered. Consequently, every year you will be able to taste the climatic, meteorological, and geological shifts of that year in that specific area.
Claros 2016 Merlot Tasting Notes:
This is definitely a wine you will want to decant, which I did not do. Even knowing it was unfiltered I shrugged it off. So many unfiltered wines I’ve had display only minor sediment. I could see the avalanche of sediment coming when I poured the last few glasses. But I did it anyway because I wanted to see how much would come out. In the end, the last glass was more like drinking a Turkish coffee than it was a Turkish wine! The large amount of sediment does mean for a cloudy wine though. The color was a really pretty jewel-toned garnet.
Decanting and waiting at least an hour will also help dissipate some of the alcohol fumes. At 14.6% abv the alcohol here is pretty high. While I got a bit of alcohol burn on the nose I did not feel it at all on the palate.
This is no one’s typical Merlot. Not at all fruit forward on the nose, there was more of a barnyard bouquet with carob, dried fig, all spice, and baking spices. Kind of reminded me of being back in Michigan around the horse barn at Christmas! Contrary to the nose, flavors were more predominately fruity with red and black cherries with spicy and animal undertones. Tannins were on the aggressive side (meaning right up my alley!) with a racy acid that managed to stand up to them.
This was a really different experience. Unfortunately, between their extremely small production and lack of Istanbul distribution it’s not one that a lot of people will get to have. Luckily for me though I still have another bottle!