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Getting Wild with Büyülübağ

 

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Büyülübağ owner Alp Törüner  experimented with micro vinifications of wild fermentations for a few years before releasing his first commercial bottling in 2015. While perhaps not the first such wine on the market, the Büyülübağ Wild Ferment Cabernet Sauvignon was the first wine to label itself a ‘wild ferment’. 

Törüner feels a deep connection with Cabernet Sauvignon. Two of his aunts (by marriage) are French and they brought a lot of their culture into the family, including the practice of drinking wine with meals. He first visited France when he was 11-12 years old and even at that early age was captured by the country and wine. 

The grapes for this wine come from the winery’s island vineyards. Avşa, in the Sea of Marmara, is a solid granite block topped with decomposed granite. What does that mean for his Cabernet grapes? Granite has poor water retention which forces vines to dig deep in the ground for nourishment, which makes them more resistant to extreme conditions such as heat and drought. Elevated pH in the soils often translates to a brighter wine with higher acidity, precision, and minerality.

Büyülübağ Wild Ferment Cabernet Sauvignon, 2018

First, what do I mean by “wild fermented”? Many winemakers choose to add cultivated yeasts to ferment wine. These yeasts are tried and tested and a winemaker generally can guess how the wine will react and what it will taste like. However, grapes come from the vineyard with yeast already on them. You’ve seen it at the grocery store! That cloudy “bloom” on the berry contains naturally occurring (or indigenous, native, or wild) yeast. Grapes can (and will!) absolutely ferment with those yeasts alone but the results are not always so predictable.

If you get a bottle of this, do yourself a favor and let it breathe for a bit. If you have a decanter (or even a big jug) use it an hour or so before you want to drink this. 

How juicy do you like your fruit? Should the answer be “a lot” than this is your wine! It poured a deep, opaque ruby with black fruit, floral, herbaceous, and spicy aromas. On the palate it was medium-bodied, structured, with very good acidity and firm well integrated, ripe tannins. It showed juicy, mouth-filling flavors of blackberry, black mulberry, black and red currant, and lilac with an appealing graphite minerality.