Selendi Sarnıç Cabernet Sauvignon & Franc
I’ve been taking the Wine Scholar Guild’s (Northern) Italian Wine Scholar course. Even though I have a million other things I should be doing, the allure of online courses and exams, plus the opportunity to procrastinate those other things, is strong. Of course now I’m finding excuses to procrastinate this course and not study. So that’s all worked out marvelously well. Why is this digression germane to a post about Turkish wine? Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blends.
One of the things I’ve managed to retain so far from the reading is that a number of the norther Italian wine regions make blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc which are often labeled simply ‘Cabernet.’ I don’t know how common this blend is elsewhere but here in Turkey it’s pretty rare. In fact I only know two wineries that do it. Chamlija, in Thrace, makes a Cabernet & Cabernet and half way across the country in the Aegean’s arid Akhısar, so does Selendi.
It’s been years since I’ve had, or even seen Chamlija’s blend. Selendi’s is much easier to find.
Selendi Sarnıç Cabernet Sauvignon & Franc, 2014
Grapes from this wines come from the winery’s organic Sarnıç vineyards at 800 meters above sea level. The wine aged for 18 months in French oak barrels.
Inky dark purple-black on the pour with intriguing aromas of green pepper, charred wood, blue plum, mint, forest floor, and moss. Structured and velvety tannins greeted the first sip and persisted through a medium long finish. Medium acidity and alcohol (13.8% abv) contributed to the overall medium body of the blend. Palate flavors opened with plum fruit and green bell peppers. Spicy with black pepper the charred wood from the nose also popped up on the palate before the wine slid into a minty and milk chocolate finish.
Rich and luscious. I would definitely drink this again!