Melen Tempranillo 2014
Melen is one of those wineries tucked away in Hoşköy of which I had some nebulous knowledge, but had never seen any of their wines. Until a trip to Migros in the Cevahir mall. Migros had two or three of Melen’s wine including the Melen Tempranillo 2014. I was gun shy as I’ve been burned by Turkish Tempranillo before; but for 29 TL what could it hurt?
Nothing that’s what. This was a shockingly good wine for the price. The inflated retail price no less.
Melen Winery
The Melen winery has been a family venture around since the founding of the [Turkish] Republic. Their website is written rather poetically and absolutely worth a read through. One of the topics it addresses is the Melen logo about which I had been curious. From the website:
“The source of inspiration for the Melen Logo is the maker’s mark that appears on ancient amphorae discovered in excavations of local potteries which, since ancient times, provided the means of exporting the wines of the region. With an abundance of wine and olive oil and clay from the river beds Hoşköy was able to export its produce to many different countries including Egypt and Russia. Today, Melen carries on this age old tradition.”
Melen is absolutely one of the wineries I’d love to visit as soon as I find someone to chauffeur me around Turkey.
Melen Tempranillo 2014 Tasting Notes
At 14% abv this is not a little wine. Similar I suspect to a Spanish Crianza-style Tempranillo, it was an inky, opaque ruby in the glass. The nose was redolent of raspberries and chocolate. Even though the nose was lovely I braced myself for disappointment in the mouth. A disappointment that did not come!
Wow. Really big tannins that I wasn’t expecting. The tannins smoothed out well with some decanting time and balanced well with mouthwatering acid. The flavors also deepened quite a lot with the decanting time and picked up more black and dried fruit essence.
I am now actively on the look out for more wine by Melen! I have a couple on the racks already and can’t wait to get to them.