Sagavın Öküzgözü
Sagavın Winery‘s wines still reside totally under the radar. I’ve seen them at the odd shop here in Istanbul but not widely. Which is a shame. I’m not going to pretend that they’re the greatest wines or even anything above mediocre because they’re not. And yet. They’re pricing their wines exactly as they should – not always a guarantee anywhere, especially not here! For that reason alone I think it’s a winery worth supporting. Wine can improve. Egos and price inflation rarely do. 
I’ve tried a number of Sagavın’s wines so far, the rosé was a nice surprise! And now that temperatures have cooled off a bit, I can tackle the reds, like the Sagavın Öküzgözü.
Sagavın Öküzgözü, 2020
The grapes for this wine don’t come from Antalya where the winery is based but from the Aegean. Specifically from Çal. Fermented and aged briefly in stainless steel before being bottled with, supposedly, limited filtration. The wine did pour a very bright and clean ruby though which makes me wonder about that “limited filtration”. It is a buzz phrase for Turkish wines.
Bright and fruity on the nose, leaning more towards red fruits than I usually think of when I think Öküzgözü. Lots of cherry-berry aromas. The palate was dry with raspberry and sweet cherry flavors, silky with friendly acidity. A little thin but (again for the lower price point) not bad. Honestly I should have opened this in the summer! With a little chill it would have been really crushable especially if paired with like a sour cherry kebab.