Prodom Tellus Syrah Petit Verdot
When I first started seriously drinking Turkish wine my strategy was simple. Start at the bottom shelf at my local Carrefour and drink my way up. That strategy worked pretty well for me. Not the least because as I made my way towards the pricier bottles the Turkish Lira began its downwards trajectory; making those upper shelf wines less expensive than when I started.
I soon discovered the downside to my plan. I had begun ignoring all the new wines that came into the middle of the shelf. Whether subconsciously or due to a snobby belief that mid range Turkish wine had nothing more to offer me, I don’t know. But it was a mistake. One of the very first bottles to show me how much of one was the 53 TL Tellus Syrah Petit Verdot from Prodom.
Petit Verdot in Turkey
Finding Petit Verdot in Turkey is not exactly challenging. For a country as obsessed with recreating Bordeaux as this, small percentages of Petit Verdot appear not infrequently in blends. Gratifyingly though, wines putting Petit Verdot at the forefront seem to pop up more and more.
Suvla for instance, blends it with native Karasakız. Gülor blends it with another native variety, Öküzgözü. Mozaik blends it with Rebo. A small handful of wineries even make varietal wines with it. Chateau Kalpak holds back from its blends some of what it considers its best Petit Verdot for a limited release varietal. Sevilen’s 900 series includes a Petit Verdot (my personal favorite). Aydın-based winery Prodom uses the grape in several of its wines; in everything from big blends to a varietal.
Prodom Tellus Syrah Petit Verdot 2013 Tasting Notes
While I know and very much enjoy wines from Prodom, it was less the winery’s reputation and more the grape that drew me to the Tellus Syrah Petit Verdot. I’m so pleased I decided to try it as it’s not one of my go-to reds!
Prodom’s winemaker, Evren Kalkan, is a lovely women whose openness and ready laugh don’t quite prepare you for the seriousness of her wines. While Tellus is not Prodom’s top line, she treats the wines with no less respect and gravity. After 10 months in French oak and limited filtration (common for Prodom’s reds), the Tellus Syrah Petit Verdot punches well above its price category.
From Prodom about this wine: “This wine has a black cherry color and a fruity nose of plum, cherry, blackberry, and a hint of cinnamon. There is vanilla, blackberry and a cinnamon tone with rounded tannins on a relatively soft palate, this wine is nicely balanced and clean.”
For me it was all that an more. Intensely deep ruby in the glass, the nose revealed aromas of black fruits, cinnamon, coffee, and leather. Relatively high alcohol (14.3% abv) finds balance with rounded tannins and delicious flavors of tack room, tart forest fruits, and smoked meat.