Blog

Merguez Sausages and a Debut #MerlotMe Wine from Gürbüz #WinePW

 

---

It’s Merlober! What else could the #WinePW group be exploring this month than that most divisive of grapes, Merlot? This month’s host Jeff from Food Wine Click!, invitation post invited us all to join in the #MerlotMe celebration and sing the praises of this grape. You can read his invitation here. Join us on Saturday, October 9 at 8am PST / 11am EST / 6pm Istanbul time and join the discussion! Just follow the #WinePW hashtag on Twitter.

The Bordeaux varieties are big in Turkey. While I do not know statistics on how much vineyard area is given over to any particular grape, I do know that they are some of the most popular grapes in Turkey. One just needs to look at the wine on offer to see that! My guess is Merlot’s popularity lags slightly behind Cabernet Sauvignon but is higher than the other black Bordeaux grapes. Essentially, that means that people grow the grape from one end of the country to the other.

Gürbüz Winery

Over the last few years, Akın Gürbüz has emerged as one of Tukey’s most prominent and talented winemakers. But he didn’t just arrive on the scene. After training at UC Davis and cutting his teeth first in California-based wineries then in New Zealand, he came back to Turkey in 2010 to work for Tekirdağ-based winery Barbare. Soon it was no longer just Barbare. Gürbüz became a winemaking consultant for some of Turkey’s premiere and small production wineries including: Urla, Chateau Kalpak, Likya, Ayda, Doseluna, Chamlija, and Eskibağlar. Eventually, consulting was not enough for him.

In 2015, he began finally to make his own wine under his own label. His first vintage netted him less than 1,000 bottles. Rapid expansion brought him up to the current 20,000 (give or take) bottles. But 1,000 or 20,000…he’s sold every year. Gürbüz sources grapes from both his own vineyards and contract vineyards so what he has changes a bit from year to year. He started with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, and Misket. Then there was Karalahna, Kalecik Karası, Cabernet Franc, and Cinsault. Now, Merlot. 

Gürbüz  has said: “To be a good wine maker, you need to give it your heart and love it.” He does, and he is.

Committed to sustainable, organic, and biodynamic practices, he is both careful and thoughtful in his winery. Everything in both his vineyards and his winery is done by hand, including the minimum four times daily punch down. Wines are open top fermented, filtered but not fined, and the red see an average of 19 months ageing in French, American, and Hungarian oak with a variety of toasts.

Gürbüz Winemaker’s Selection Merlot, 2019 

2019 was a mixed year for a lot of us! But at least on a winemaking side it was successful for Gürbüz. This was his first year working in his own winery with Merlot. I was lucky enough to visit last fall when the wine was all still in barrel. We tasted through the various barrels (all single plot wines) and he told me which ones would end up in his debut Bordeaux blend (Hieron Oros) and which he would bottle as a single varietal. I don’t think I have ever loved a Merlot more than I did that day!

By the time bottling came around, the Merlot spent 15 months in a combination of different kinds and toasts of oak barrels.

The wine (which I decanted for about two hours prior to drinking) poured a beautiful deep ruby. Freshly roasted coffee beans hit my nose first followed by brown spices, fresh black fig, dried currants, and blueberries. Such richness in the nose; I could have just swirled and sniffed and been happy. But since I’m not insane, of course I also sipped!

A nice level of acidity brightened up the fruit sensed on the nose with tart red currants and heavy summer-ripened blackberries. Jammy black fruits, spice notes like nutmeg and cardamom, and yet more roasted coffee really showed off the excellent use of oak ageing. Tannins were silky and gripped the edges of the tongue but did not overwhelm. Instead they provided an excellent structure to support this full-bodied wine and, along with that nice acidity and fruit, helped balance the rather high alcohol (14.9% abv).

This was a lovely, elegant, and rich wine with complex layers. And it was only a 2019! I cannot wait to see how this is in a few years!

I paired this with pork merguez sausages baked with apples and red onions; an autumn-inspired “harvest” salad with pears, pecans, and dried figs; and roasted sweet potatoes with garlic aioli. It worked okay with the merguez sausages but frankly those didn’t have a lot of flavor. Will not be ordering those again! The Merlot did well with the salad! But the real pairing winner were the roasted sweet potatoes and garlic aioli. The sweet potatoes drew out the fruit in the wine which in turn stood up well to the immense amount of garlic I used.

Merlober’s not over!

Don’t forget to check out the Merlot pairings from the rest of the #WinePW group!

• 2012 Ridge Estate Merlot + Reverse Sear Ribeye Steak by ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Bonterra and Creamy Lasagna Soup by Our Good Life
• California Dreamin’ for #MerlotMe Month, Part I by My Full Wine Glass
• Celebrate #MerlotMe with a Wine that Hits the Mark by Supporting Veterans by Exploring the Wine Glass
• Experiments with Salmon and Merlot by Somm’s Table
• Ground Beef and Kale Recipe with #MerlotMe Wine by Cooking Chat
• I Melt for Merlot and Chocolate by What’s in That Bottle?
• Kicking off #MerlotMe with 2 Rutherford Hill Merlots and Decadent Burgers with Chocolate! by Crushed Grape Chronicles
• Merguez Sausages and a Debut #MerlotMe Wine from Gürbüz by The Quirky Cork
• Merlot with Chicken in a Mushroom Wine Sauce by Vino Travels
• #MerlotMe and Meaty Asian Sandwich by Chinese Food & Wine Pairings
• Mushroom Madness Paired with Merlot by Always Ravenous
• October Means #MerlotMe Paired With Instant Pot Bacon Mushroom Merlot Chicken by Wine Predator……..Gwendolyn Alley
• One of the Oldest Foods on Earth + 2019 Bonterra Organic Merlot by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Tri-Tip Steak and Duckhorn, a #MerlotMe Classic by Food Wine Click!
• Won’t You Please #MerlotMe? by A Day in the Life on the Farm