Midin Şarapçılık Cehennem Deresi Bilbilzeki
While more and more new wineries pop up in Turkey, on an almost annual basis now! Assyrian wineries are still a minority. While a lot of families in Southeast Anatolia, where the majority of Turkey’s Assyrian population lives, still make their own wine at home, a few commercial wineries also produce. Up to now, the most widely-recognized name belongs to Midyat-based Shiluh. But now, Shiluh has competition in Midin Şarapçılık.
60+ yr old Bilbileki
Midin Şarapçılık
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.
The winery sees itself as a guardian of both Assyrian wine culture and the ancient vines in the village. Many of which were in serious danger of being pulled up and replaced with more profitable crops before they came along. Young vines here are still about 30 years old while others exceed 80 years. I wrote about their commitment to preserving these old vines for the Jancis Robinson 2021 summer writing competition. You can read my entry for that here!
Midin’s Cehennem Deresi
Bilbilzeki
One of the little-known grapes the winery works with goes by the name, Bilbilzeki. While I do not, as yet, have much ampelographic information about this grape, I did manage to get a little. A white grape, when ripe Bilbilzeki attains a bright green color and has an elongated shape. It grows in loose bunches and has a distinct, five-lobed, ruffle-edged leaf. While I’m unsure of the exact measurements, it can attain enough sugars to make a sweet wine if left to hang on the vine long enough.
Cool thing about Bilbilzeki- it has two distinct harvests. Half the grapes on the vine ripen fully and get harvested in August. At that point, the other half are still in fruit set stage. Those don’t get harvested until the end of September or even early October.
Cehennem Derisi Bilbilzeki, 2020
The Cehennem Derisi line takes its name, literally ‘Hell’s Creek’ (dere also translates as stream, gully, valley, vale, etc). It represents the winery’s entry-level series and the 100% Bilbilzeki is the white in the this line. Fermented on native yeasts in stainless steel tanks, this wine sees no oak ageing.
Hay gold in the glass with aromatic aromas. Fruity with peach and nectarine, pear blossom, pomelo, and orange. The first sip revealed medium plus acidity with a weight and roundness from the high alcohol (14.5% abv). Again very fruity on the palate with an explosion of orchard peaches and citrus decorated with candied orange peels. A pretty, juicy, dry wine that shows a lot of promise. It was also very food friendly, always a plus!