Get to Know the Grape: Foça Karası
Foça Karası, a nearly extinct grape from Izmir’s Foça district, is currently championed by only a few wineries, namely Öküzgözü Şarapçılık.
Foça Karası (foe-cha ka-ra-sih) berries are small to medium in size and slightly elongated with thick skin. They grow in kind of loose, single-lobed, medium-sized bunches. It’s a mid-ripening grape that makes aromatic wines full of sour cherry, strawberry, prune, clove, black pepper, dill, black currant leaf, and licorice.
While in Turkey this grape follows the “black of” naming pattern, this grape also goes by another name: Fokiano. While we know it as Foça Karası in Turkey, in Greece Fokiano (Φωκιανό) grows mainly on the Aegean islands (and a little on the mainland). It’s not any more popular in Greece than it is in Turkey with only a handful of wineries there (mainly on Lipsi and Ilkaria) working with it. I’ve had some lovely pink and sweet wines made with this. However, recently a blend of Fokiano and Mandalarina blew me away (read about it here!).
Food Pairing
Foça Karası’s light to medium bodied wines and high acidity give it the flexibility to pair well with a variety of foods.
Like Fersun, which we explored last month, red wines made with majority Foça Karası have a light enough body that they drink well chilled. So pull out this wine for your summer charcoal-grilled veggies, burgers, sausages, and poultry!
This will pair well with a number of other proteins (including pork and lamb) and dishes like stuffed peppers and eggplants.
And speaking of veggies; dishes rich in eggplant, green peppers, mushrooms, and tomato will go well with red wines. Try a celery root based green salad to pair with the blanc de noir
Cooking with balsamic, bay leaf, black garlic, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek, garlic, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, savory, smoke, sumac, thyme, and walnut will also help bring out the best in these wines.
And if you’re a cheese-love like yours truly, try it with hard goat cheese, eski kaşar, gravyer, Gruyère, and strongly flavored sheep and goat cheeses.
Producers to check out
At the moment, I believe only three producers work with Foça Karası: Ayda Bağları, Öküzgözü Şarapçılık, and USCA. Ayda Bağları and USCA include small portions of it in blends whereas Öküzgözü Şarapçılık uses it, not only in blends, but in varietal red, rosé, and blanc de noir wines.
Click to see my reviews of Foça Karası wines.