Introducing Gordias Fesleğen & Narınç
Gordias winery, based in Polatlı (near Ankara), rests in the hands of former pharmacist Canan Gerimli. The winery posses a cleaner and Canan brings in people to help during harvest. Otherwise, she does all the work herself. This one-woman army makes an array of red, rosé, and white wines with both native and international grapes. Her Cabernet Franc, Boğazkere, and Narince count among some of my favorites here. And as if making 10 wines on her own wasn’t enough; this year Canan introduced us to two new grapes: Fesleğen and Narınç.
Gerimli was on the lookout for grapes in her region that needed some love. After doing extensive research she found these two in the Koçaş village of Sivrihisar, 50 kilometers away from her winery (which, for reference, is about 80 km from Ankara). These grapes, she learned, are believed to be a legacy of the Armenian community that used to occupy the region.
Gordias Fesleğen, 2019
During her research, Gerimli learned about two variations of the Fesleğen grape. One has pale yellow skin and the other a black variety called “sooty” Fesleğen. Gerimli chose to work with the former. She’s been working on the grape for a few years now and this spring released her first vintage. An extremely limited bottling, it was in an out of the few shops that carried it faster than I could blink.
Luckily I scored a couple bottles from her directly!
The Gordias Fesleğen poured a lemon so pale as to look more platinum. Initially the nose was very faint. Then slowly and delicate aromas of grapefruit, flint, gunsmoke, and freshly turned garden soil unfurled. The grape’s name, Fesleğen, means “basil” in Turkish. I’m not clear on why but I certainly did not detect any aromas of basil. The palate had a similarly delicate profile. Light-bodied and dry with medium acidity and flavors of lemon salt, flint, and wet quartz.
In many ways it reminded of Turkey’s Emir grape. I suspect it would be similarly food friendly as well. For us it went very well with pesto pasta, green beans, yogurt, and flavors of preserved lemon, ginger, and garlic. I’d really like to try it with Moroccan food.
Gordias Narınç, 2019
The second grape, Narınç (a derivation of the word “narenciye” which means “citrus”) has a pale yellow skin with pink freckles. Gerimli chose to put the wine through extended maceration to make an amber wine. The 15 days it spent on the skin resulted in a pale, coppery peach color.
The nose here expressed notes of red apple, peach skin, fresh orange peel, bay leaf, hay, tarragon, and popcorn. It was really quite interesting. Some of those aromas, particularly the peach skin, tarragon, and popcorn, I feel are often hallmarks of amber wine. The red apple was certainly a dark horse in the bouquet though. Medium-bodied and dry with low tannins, medium plus acidity, and moderate alcohol (12.5% abv). Fresh lemony and grapefruit flavors added themselves to the mix along with some of the more savory aspect from the nose, particularly the hay and popcorn.
How wide the appeal of these two wines would be if Gordias ramps up production I’m not sure. Turkish drinkers haven’t embraced amber wine especially with a great deal of enthusiasm. Partially I suspect because the Turkish amber wines usually come with a prohibitive price tag for many. All wine production in Turkey is a risky venture. Turks are not big wine drinkers (average one liter per head annually), prices for the especially good wines are often too high for the market, and the ban on advertising makes it difficult to educate. So it’s wineries like Gordias who take even greater risks by rescuing grapes with no guarantee that they’ll find an audience I most admire.