Midin Şarapçılık and Old Vines Karkuş
Kerküş is not a grape we talk about a lot. In fact, I have written about it only once after visiting Shiluh in Mardin. A well-known Assyrian winery, Shiluh blends Kerküş with another grape native to south east Turkey, Mazrona. However, it’s never been available before as a single varietal. Now, thanks to newly opened Assyrian winery Midin Şarapçılık, it is.
60+ year old Kerküş vine
Midin Şarapçılık sits closer to Şırnak than to Mardin. The family behind the winery, the Salibas, have inhabited the Midin village (or Öğündükköyü as it’s known in Turkish) since the 1500s. Recently, the family decided to open their own winery to showcase the many lesser-known, and in some cases totally unknown! grape varieties grown around the Midin. Here Kerküş, known locally as Karkuş, the grapes grow in head-trained “bushes.” But, in reality, many are as tall at 6 feet!
We don’t have a ton of ampelographic information about this grape yet but Saba Açıkgöz from Gaya Oenologie (and Midin’s winemaker) is currently researching it. We do know that this white grape has incredibly thick skins that result in deeply-colored and tannic wines.
Midin Şarapçılık Karkuş, 2020
I tried this wine on a visit to the winery. A tank sample, this wine saw no oak ageing and, incredibly, no skin contact. None. Zip. Zero. Really very surprising given that the color essentially matched the sunset in the background!
It was hard to divorce my mind from the color while taking my first sniffs. There are certain aromas I tend to “look for” in more rustic skin contact/amber wines and my mind often goes right to those or tries to find them. For this, I had to close my eyes and actively try to disremember the color in the glass to pick out what was truly there. When I did, I found the nose to be very rich with with spiced quince and pear and hints of ginger.
I was expecting high tannins and I got them! So very much tannins. They grabbed hold of my tongue and the inside of my mouth and did not let go. And I loved it. Full-bodied with high (15% abv) alcohol. Flavors similar to what I got from the nose but a more muted version thereof. Not a wine for everyone with those tannins. But while some people are ‘acid freaks’ when it comes to wine, I am a ‘tannin freak’ all the way.
Midin Şarapçılık Baluto Karkuş, 2020
Midin generously gave me a bottle of the Baluto Karkuş to try at home. Baluto means ‘oak’ in the local Aramaic dialect.
Like the previous wine, the grapes for this fermented with indigenous yeasts and reached a whopping 15% abv. It’s freaking hot in this area of Turkey. I visited at the end of May and thought I was going to die; but everyone told me, in very blasé tones, that this the upper 30s C temperatures were normal for that time of the year. All that to say, this grape is capable of developing a lot of sugar, has the heat to do so, and makes high alcohol wines. As this is part of the winery’s ‘Baluto’ line, it aged for about right months in 500 liter (French) oak barrels.
Again like the previous wine, this 100% Karkuş underwent no skin contact despite what the deep gold-amber color might indicate. Very very different on the nose! Earthy and herbal, with clay pot, savory vanilla (is that a thing? it should be a thing), bay, thyme, exotic blossoms, and orange. Still tannic on the palate but much tamed by its time in oak. Still not fully integrated but definitely less aggressive. I did think that palate flavors retained the intensity of the nose reflecting a lot of the earthy-herbal character with the addition of sundried apricot and tobacco.