Online Emir Taste Along
Last Saturday I hosted another Turkish wine Taste Along. In addition to having a wee handful of people physically present with me, tasters joined us online from Istanbul, Athens, London, DC, and Las Vegas. Cheers especially to those in Vegas who were easting breakfast and drinking their morning cuppas along with the wine!
When I first started in Turkish wine there were really were only what I call the Big Six for grapes. Three white grapes and three black grapes; finding wine made from a seventh Turkish grape was like finding a unicorn. However, even though now winemakers here have greatly expanded both their and our horizon with more and more native grapes, Emir remains one of my favorites.
All About Emir
Emir is most at home in the mineral rich volcanic/limestone/sandstone soils of Turkey’s famous Cappadocia in the Central Anatolia growing region. Most people think of Cappadocia as the tourism ads show it to you: summer time with lots of sun and picturesque hot air balloons rising above the fairy chimney rock formations. It does look like that and it does get hot. In the summer. In not summer it is cold. High elevation and a semi-arid continental climate makes for some seemingly inhospitable land for grapes. But Emir thrives here.
Two main producers of Emir, Turasan and Kocabağ also make their home in Cappadocia. A handful of other producers buy in grapes from vineyards here. Few plant this finicky grape elsewhere. Emir wines generally have a crisp and clean character with notes of green apple and citrus. They can display some delicate floral notes but are largely known for their searing acidity, mineral notes, and slightly “salty” flavor. Emir, like me, does not have an affinity for oak. While some lees ageing is possible, people generally make it without oak ageing or malolactic conversion.
Kocabağ K of Kapadokya, 2019
As one of the leading, and onsite, producers of Emir, Kocabağ offers several different bottlings at various price points. This one, with its charming label, is available for a mere 48 TL (give or take $6 at today’s exchange rate).
Alcohol: 12.5% abv
Color: pale lemon
Nose: Not especially expressive on the nose, the wine nonetheless displayed delicate aromas of lemon blossom and sea spray.
Palate: Kocabağ leans towards a softer approach to Emir than neighboring Turasan. Round palate with understated acidity, more lemon, pomelo, and wet stone. Quite a decent for the price but it did start to go ‘cheap white wine’ on the end. Drink and enjoy but drink it while it’s nice and cold!
Kocabağ Emir, 2018
Whereas the K of Kapadokya represents Kocabağ’s entry level wines, the eponymous line takes a bit more serious approach. Both in winemaking and price! This wine is available for about 85 TL ($11).
Alcohol: 13% abv
Color: pale lemon
Nose: More expressive and intense nose than the previous with lemon peel, again pomelo, and lemon salt.
Palate: Palate was round with that “soft water” feeling, mid palate weight, and medium acidity. Flavors largely reflected those sensed on the nose with the addition of pink grapefruit and a pleasant citrus pith bitterness on the finish.
Turasan Emir, 2018
I enjoy Emir regardless of who makes it. But in all honesty I must admit that I consider Turasan’s to be the embodiment of what it means to be this grape. It’s my favorite of the Emir wines and at around 60 TL ($7.80) won’t break the bank.
Alcohol: 14.5% abv
Color: pale, green-highlighted lemon
Nose: Always my favorite, high acidity, tense/electric, apple, lime, lemon peel, & mineral on the nose.
Palate: Electric and tense in the mouth, the acidity in Turasan’s Emir immediately puckers the mouth before an explosion of mouthwatering green apple, lemon zest, freshly squeezed lemon, and kiwi flavors. Once you’ve recovered from that, the minerality that makes Emir so notorious reminds you why you bought the entry ticket in the first place and leaves behind a lemony salt and sea spray finish.
Melen Emir, 2019
Melen winery is based in the village of Hoşköy which lies in the Marmara growing region. Melen does not grow Emir in its own vineyards onsite but has them trucked in from Cappadocia. A distance of some 1,000 kilometers. Maybe grape transportation contributed to the alarmingly high cost of this wine (100 TL/$13). Although where I bought it, Dekante (which has an odd love affair happening with Melen wines) does often have higher than average prices.
Alcohol: 13.5% abv
Color: deeper, medium lemon
Nose: A bit shy on the nose but considering how traumatized the grapes likely were I’m not surprised. Notes of warm citrus, borderline curd and white rose finally expressed themselves after some encouraging swirling.
Palate: Round with medium acidity and flavors that reflected those sensed on the nose. Surprisingly, yellow Golden Delicious style apple flavors also popped up on the palate along with a hint of preserved lemon to go with the white rose. Honestly, it was better than I expected but at that price point I will not go back for more.
Aykut Özkan Colossae Emir, 2013
Like Melen, the Aykut Özkan winery, based in the Aegean region’s Denizli, brings in Emir grapes. These have a somewhat shorter journey though and travel approximately 680 kilometers. I have been told by several people here that Emir is not a grape for ageing. A year or two sure but not longer than that. However, when I saw this 2013 (!!!) wine at my favorite wine shop, I had to have it for this tasting. And at a mere 55 TL ($7) there wasn’t a huge financial risk involved.
Alcohol: 13.5% abv
Color: intense lemon bordering on golden
Nose: Even though I expect to find (and am disappointed when I don’t) aromas like sea spray, quartz, iodine etc. on the nose with Emir, the full-on sense of “beach” this evoked surprised me. And nice beach at that, not low tide beach.
Palate: The palate was…pretty shocking really. For one thing, not off which was a nice treat since I was expecting the opposite. I tried to get in touch with the winery to ask how this was made because-despite having said that Emir has to affinity for oak- I would swear up and down that this had been oak aged! Round with medium acidity and flavors of vanilla orchids, lemon cream, and almonds with a medium-short finish. Now I’m wondering if everyone is wrong after Emir’s relationship with oak!
Kavaklidere Altın Köpük, 2018
Interestingly enough, Kavaklidere not only has vineyards in Cappadocia but it also has a very fancy winery. At this, their Cote d’Avanos winery, Kavaklidere produces Narince, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Tempranillo. But not Emir. If I’m incorrect about this I’d love to know but I believe they also truck Emir grapes to the main winery facility in Ankara (350 kilometers). Would love to see them really invest in some Emir vineyards and start producing not only this but also still Emir out of the Cote d’Avanos facility.
This sparkling wine, Altın Köpük (which means Golden Foam) is the only sparkling wine make with Emir grapes. Kavaklidere makes it in a brut style with the Martinotti/Charmat/tank method (whatever name you want to use there!). For an average of 150 TL ($20) it’s a pretty good bottle of fizz.
Alcohol: 13.8% abv
Color: pale gold
Nose: Lots of biscuit in the nose – British biscuit, not American – along with toasted nuts and lemon
Palate: Sipping revealed a dry with a full mousse and small bubbles and flavors of lemon curd topped shortbread