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Etruscan İno Sauvignon Blanc – and A Rant

 

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New on the market last year, Etruscan Bağcılık introduced several new wines. While the winery got started in 2010, it kept pretty quiet until its first commercial release. Which means unfortunately I missed it on my pass through Gallipoli while researching for my book. I have since got my hands on a few of their wines, one of which is the Etruscan İno Sauvignon Blanc.

Etruscan Bağcılık

Vineyard planting for Etruscan Bağcılık began in 2010 in Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula. If Eceabat sounds familiar (in a wine context), it’s because several other wineries including Suvla and Asmadan call it home. Etruscan’s vineyards here grow a familiar mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Sangiovese.

Now because I didn’t get to visit during my research phase, I got the above info from the winery’s semi-useful website. But, while reading through it, I saw something that made me go down a rabbit hole of Googling and several rounds of headbanging. And here is where this post will differ from so many other posts. I have always tried to find something positive to say about a winery and/or its wine. Especially while I was working on the book since I needed everyone’s cooperation. That’s done now and the gloves are coming off.

According to the winery’s website, they chose the name because Etruscans, before settling in central Italy, came from Anatolia. Now, I’ve been slogging my way through the Wine Scholar Guild’s Italian Wine Scholar program for the better part of two years and, while I have a number of issues with the way the guild presents information, I really do not remember reading that anywhere. That’s when I fell down the rabbit hole.

Etruscans came from Anatolia?

Herodotus, known by some as the “father of history”, claimed that Etruscans migrated to Italy from Anatolia 3000 years ago. He also said that they brought grapes with them – and we’ll get to that part later. An article in Science Daily does seem to support this claim. Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, studied genetic samples from three present-day Italian populations living in Murlo, Volterra, and Casentino in Tuscany as well as from men living in Sicily, Sardinia, Northern Italy, the Southern Balkans, and the Greek island Lemnos. They compared these samples to DNA taken from modern Turkish, Southern Italian, European, and Middle-Eastern populations. The samples from Murlo and Volterra “were more closely related those from near Eastern people than those of the other Italian samples”. “In Murlo particularly, one genetic variant is shared only by people from Turkey…”

This seemed to be enough for both Professor Piazza and Etruscan Bağcılık. Never mind that Herodotus, also known (even by many of his contemporaries) as “father of lies” has since been disproven. 

A study published in 2021 by Science Advances includes new research comparing DNA samples taken from 82 individuals who lived in central and southern Italy between 800 B.C. and 1000 A.D. Something Professor Piazza indicated was too difficult to do. In an interview with Haaretz, Professor Cosimo Posth, an archaeogeneticist at Tubingen, said that the study showed that the DNA of the ancient Etruscans – which were around half of the sample – turned out to be closely related to that of other local Italic populations. The study further showed that the Near Eastern contribution to modern central Italians happened long after the Etruscan civilization fell, very much contradicting Herodotus’s theory.

Bordeaux grapes are actually … Turkish?

Okay so, the winery (not technically even located in Anatolia) got swept up with the romantic notion that Herodotus was right. Sure. If the website had stopped there, I wouldn’t have gone down the rabbit hole. But it did not stop there. The winery’s website seems to inimate that the French and Italian grapes it plants also came from Anatolia. I feel like Gandolf in the Mines of Moria. This shall not be allowed to pass.

From the website:

“But a scientist who was devoted to human adventure and art and knew the value of wine was curious. He did his research and made his decision. “Those grapes would return here”. From the grapes that give the best results in twin sister climates in Italy…”

There’s so much to unpack here. I’m going to ignore that yet another winery is trying to compare its climate with somewhere in Europe and move onto the bigger issue. Yes, Anatolia is the birthplace of vitis vinifera. But no, Cabernet Sauvignon is not from Anatolia. It’s a fairly recent grape, relatively speaking, having naturally developed as a cross between Cabernet Franc (possibly of Basque origin) and Sauvingon Blanc (likely born in the Loire) only a handful of centuries ago.

Sangiovese, like Cabernet Sauvignon, is also only a few centuries old. Its parents, Ciliegiolo (possibly Spanish origin or a wild Tuscan variety that was domesticated) and Calabrese Montenuovo (Calabrian), certainly did not come from Anatolia.

Syrah was born in the Rhône from two minor Rhône varieties: Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche.

I think you get the idea. Trying to connect these grapes to Anatolia is ridiculous. Even if Etruscans, or any other civilizations, brought grape seedlings directly from Anatolia to Europe, they aren’t now – genetically or otherwise – the same grapes they were millennia ago. That’s essentially saying that all grapes everywhere are from Anatolia because Anatolia was the birthplace of grapes 8,000 years ago. It’s an absurd solipsism.

Etruscan İno Sauvignon Blanc, 2020

So, rant over…how was the wine?!

Let me start by saying that I’m really glad that I like Sauvignon Blanc because we have a lot of it in Turkey. (You know, made from vines imported from France.) And even before wine prices here generally skyrocketed, a number of producers churned out wine at unsupportable (I might even say unjustifiable) prices. Which means that, in a sea of Sauvignon Blanc, yours has to be really good if you’re going to slap the comparable equivalent of a Grand Cru Chablis price on the bottle.

Etruscan has one of the more highly-priced Sauvignon Blancs. It is by no means the most expensive one we have here, but it’s up there. Is it worth it? Meh. This is certainly one of those times that wine notes make something sound really nice though.

I found the nose to be on the shy side, timidly revealing aromas of pink grapefruit curd, kaffir lime leaf, pear, and gravel. The palate had less intensity than the nose and delivered some of the same flavors sensed on the nose. Grapefruit and lemon splashes along with some apple. Medium-bodied with moderately high alcohol and enough acidity to let you know it was Sauvignon Blanc.

A nice enough wine for sure. Decently made, more or less balanced, but not worth the price of admission in my opinion. And just in case anyone thinks that my horror over the idea of Etruscans carrying Sauvignon Blanc from Anatolia to France colored my opinion of the wine…I drank this last summer (that’s how bad I am at keeping my posts current) and I read the website last week.