It’s All About Yapıncak
Not that very many things ever were fully closed for COVID (or not at least for long), but Turkey is more and more open now. As such, I decided it was finally time to get back to doing in person wine tastings! My first one recently had a small group of attendees in person (people I knew well who would bear with me during the moments when I forgot how to be in front of people again!) as well as online participants.
To get back into the groove, I chose to do a tasting concentrating on a single grape: Yapıncak. Those who were with me virtually received tasting kits with samples of the four still wines we tasted while those physically with me got to try two sparkling wines. Yapıncak is, unfortunately in my opinion, not a very popular grape. Really only three producers do…well anything with it. A fact I find quite surprising since a large concentration of wineries live in the region this grape calls home.
For more information about Yapıncak, you can read about it in my Get to Know the Grape post about it here.
Sevilen Yapıncak, 2018
If I understood correctly the story behind this, 2018 was Sevilen’s first varietal Yapıncak. They’d had the grapes in their Mürefte (a district in Şarköy halfway-ish between Istanbul and Gallipoli along the Sea of Marmara) vineyards for ages. But, they never really did anything significant with the grapes. Enter their then new head winemaker Sibel Çoban. A simply made wine fermented and aged in stainless steel but with a lovely label that Sibel herself designed to pay homage to Sevilen’s original winery in Mürefte.
SRP: 70-80 TRY (Macro Center and larger Migros)
ABV: 12%
Appearance: deep gold, you can see that this one is ageing, Yapıncak tends to be much paler when young
Nose: Rich fruits with apples, quince, and melon, plumeria blossoms, and a touch a sea spray.
Palate: Surprisingly hefty on the palate, this one more than any other Yapıncak has an oily mouthfeel. Flavors are a softer reflection of the nose with a slightly unpleasant young green almond bitterness on the finish. The latter possibly from pressing the grapes too hard.
Paşaeli Yayaköy Yapıncak, 2020
Paşaeli, that great defender of native Turkish grapes, started playing with Yapıncak several years ago, actively seeking out underused vineyards in the Şarköy region. The winery has put out several varietal Yapıncak wines over the last few years, always from a single district (if not necessarily from a single vineyard therein). This year, the grapes for this wine came from Yayköy. Unlike previous vintages that were fermented and aged in stainless steel only, this is a blend of wines aged for five months partially in steel and partially on the lees in oak.
SRP: 125 TRY (high-end wine shops)
ABV: 12.5%
Appearance: pale straw
Nose: Loads of apples at the start here with both fresh fruit and apple cider vinegar initially before white flowers, grilled peach, and vanilla reveal themselves. 
Palate: Less APPLE and more apple on the palate but really it was the peaches and white petals that shone the most on the palate. A touch of oiliness but nothing compared to the Sevilen.
Paşaeli Şarköy Kabuğunda Yapıncak, 2020
Two years ago (I think anyway, this last year seems almost to have not happened!) Paşaeli began experimenting with skin-contact wines. Winery owner Seyit Karagözoğlu is quick to say that these are not “natural” wines (although most of the wines they make do undergo spontaneous fermentation). Nor are they raised in amphora. That said, this wine (fermented and aged in stainless steel) did spend 52 days on the skins.
SRP: ~230 TRY (high-end wine shops)
ABV: 12%
Appearance: shockingly pale for a skin-contact wine but, when compared to the other wines, definitely has an amber tint
Nose: The first whiff is pepper with allspice berries. Then bay leaf, medicinal bitters, and apple cider vinegar come to play.
Palate: A friend beautifully described this as “scrumpy apple cider” and I am totally going with her on that. But I shall expand and saw that it’s drinking scrumpy apple cider while sitting on a hay stack. Lovely lightly tannic structure.
Suvla Reserve Kınalı Yapıncak, 2018
Of these three wineries, Suvla has probably worked with this grape the longest. It’s also the only winery to use the grape’s nickname: Kınalı Yapıncak meaning “hennaed Yapıncak” in reference to the brown freckles the grape tends to develop. Suvla makes a basic Yapıncak but I prefer it’s oaked reserve version which both fermented and aged in (for 10 months) oak barrels.
SRP: 209 TRY (Suvla stores, Macro Center, sometimes larger grocery chains, high-end wine shops)
ABV: 13.5%
Appearance: warm gold
Nose: Initially the wine gave more expected aromas of baked tree fruit, pie crust, and brown spices. But then. Utterly unexpected, a bright pop of spearmint. Weird but kind of awesome.
Palate: That fun little pop pf spearmint did not continue on the palate but I don’t think the palate missed it. Silky and medium-bodied with really nice acidity, this was all spicy apple strudel with nutmeg, clove, and crème anglaise and a puff of vanilla smoke in the back.
Paşaeli Pét-Nat Yapıncak, 2020
For this wine we go back to Paşaeli. This year the winery released four new wines, all pét-nats. Turkey’s first!
SRP: 200-215 TRY (high-end wine shops)
ABV: 12%
Appearance: foamy, tarnished gold
Nose: Hoppy with cooked apple peels, bay leaf bitters, and freshly shaved fennel.
Palate: Quite a full mousse for a semi-sparkling wine. Dry with a rich honey flavor that battles it out with herbal/medicinal fennel seeds. The honey wins, leaving behind the fennel to make an alliance with golden apples and citrus.
Keep an eye out for a post soon about all the pét-nats from Paşaeli!
Suvla Sparkling Kınalı Yapıncak, 2012
A handful of years ago, Suvla released its own traditional method sparkling wines. Simply called Suvla Sparkling Kınalı Yapıncak, the wine is made via the traditional method and spent 36 months ageing on its lees. It is also now had quite some bottle ageing. I’m not sure of there are younger vintages on the market or not but all I found was the 2012. The original release.
I love this wine but its 400 TL (that’s almost $50) price tag is a bit too rich for me to buy this on the regular.
SRP: 400 TRY (Suvla stores)
ABV: 12%
Appearance: gold with lively bubbles
Nose: It’s everything…baked tree fruit, brown spices, pie crust, vanilla, toasted hazelnut, toast …
Palate: Gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. Bone dry, vibrant acidity with layers of flavor reflected from the nose. Elegant bubbles fill the mouth then recede like sea foam leaving behind vivid flavors of crunchy golden apples, pear blossoms, vanilla dusted nuts, and spice toast.
Really worth 400 TL…? Maybe.
Sadly most of these wines are only available domestically. However, I know that at least Paşaeli has exported a large amount of one of its Yapıncaks which can be found in Australia, the US, and possibly the Netherlands and the UK…