Prodom Syrah Kalecik Karası 2012
The Syrah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc blend is not Prodom’s only red blend. There is also the Prodom Syrah Kalecik Karası blend (also 120TL at La Cave) and, thanks to my awesome neighbor who wanted to do a comparison of the two, I had a chance to try it.
I’m not a huge fan of Syrah in general, or of blends that are majority Syrah, as I find that many of them are too tart for my liking. So I was pleasantly surprised to find enjoying this one from the first sip.
The nose of the Prodom Syrah Kalecik Karası was spice, cherries, red fruit, and something sweet that I couldn’t quite identify, perhaps cotton candy coming through from the Kalecik Karası? Cotton candy as a scent/flavor in wine kind of freaks me out a little. It does not seem like a natural flavor for a grape to have.
Possible cotton candy aside, the flavors on the palate were very nice: blackberries, dark fruits, clove, allspice, and a little tobacco. This Prodom is nicely tannic with medium-high acid (I got a little bit of the Coke burn from it) with a long, clean finish.
It did mellow nicely so eventually that Coke burn went away. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m usually too impatient to let a wine breathe for more than a count of 10 so that’s quite likely why I was getting the Coke affect.
While we opened both bottles that evening we never did get around to doing a proper comparison. One bottle was probably enough but caution was thrown to the winds and we opened the other bottle anyway. Unfortunately my neighbor was already three sheets to those winds so actual comparing didn’t happen. We’re going to give ourselves a second chance at the comparison sometime this winter when he returns to Istanbul. While I remember being surprised by how much I liked this Prodom Syrah Kalecik Karası I now don’t remember which one I liked more! And since the Turkish Lira is once again gaining ground (good for Turkey if bad for me) I’m less willing to run around buying 120TL bottles of wine willy nilly.