Kuzeybağ Kösetevek
Kösetevek is a “new” grape; or more accurately, newly reinvigorated. The grape comes from Elazığ in the east of Turkey where it has been largely overshadowed by the popular Öküzgözü.
Kuzeybağ Şarapçılık, which went from grower to producer just a short few years ago, discovered Kösetevek mixed in with its Öküzgözü vines. The grapes and leaves look very similar. As a result, for a number of years the winery unknowingly blended the two grapes. After they realized what in fact they had, the winery brought in Vine Projects to consult and help create the first 100% Kösetevek wine.
Kösetevek grows in Kuzeybağ Şarapçılık’s organic vineyards in Koruk Köyü, located on the western edge of Elazığ province. The vines, all about 30 years old, flourish in stony clay/loam, limestone soils at about 1000 meters elevation.
Kuzeybağ Kösetevek, 2019
I love when wineries debut wines made from these lesser-known Turkish grapes so I felt really excited to try this. I’ve enjoyed Kuzeybağ’s wines before and I knew Vine Projects would add that little extra something something to the wine.
The wine poured a beautiful, plummy purple with a veritable orchard of fruit. Intense aromas of blackberry, plum, black mulberry, and cherry with hints of mushroom and moss swirled out of the glass. On the palate it presented with a medium body and alcohol (13.5% abv), lively acidity, and low-medium “friend zone” tannins. If the nose exhibited an explosion of freshly plucked red and black fruits; the palate offered a more retrained character with subtle threads of white pepper.
I really enjoyed this and am very interested to see how well it will age.
One of the things I learned after trying this wine was that the infographic we made for the grape is not quite as accurate as it could be! We made the infographic with the information we had but before the wine came out so I think there might be a redo in the future.