Mor Salkım Volante Bornova Misketi
It must be two years now since I visited Mor Salkım in Bodrum. At the time, the winery largely catered to the droves of tourists in Bodrum and the general population in the Muğla province. One of the most beautiful vineyards I’ve seen in Turkey. Perfectly manicured, set on rolling hills, and marching alongside the olive trees the winery uses to produce oil.
At the time of my visit, I found the wines to be pleasant but simple and somewhat homogenous regardless of grape variety. The winery has developed quite a bit, I think, since my visit. They’ve rebranded their wine series, got better labels, and I’m happy to see some improvement in the wine as well. Wine now available in Istanbul.
I was happy to see a single varietal Bornova Misketi. A grape that seems to be overtaking Narince as far as ubiquity goes. But, like Narince, everyone has a completely different Bornova Misketi. Sure, they all share some of the same qualities as a Muscat-family grape will always display something Muscat-like. Yet the resulting wines here each manage to show their own personality.
Mor Salkım Volante Bornova Misketi, 2020
In the glass, the wine looked very nearly colorless. Pale lemon with silvery green highlights. Really pretty nose with some of those typical Bornova Misketi aromas. White roses, peach/nectarine, lilies, and lemon balm. Again, pretty, but restrained and elegant as opposed to overwhelmingly perfumey.
Following the trend of the last few years, this is a dry wine. Splashy lemon acidity greeted the first sip of this medium-bodied, 13.2% abv wine. Unripe white nectarine and citrus with a musky floral backbreath. Overall, I found it less intense than the nose which, given the delicacy of the nose, it couldn’t really afford to be.
I wasn’t especially wow’ed by the wine but it did provide a very nice foil to the spicy chipotle honey dressing I put on my salmon salad!