Sevilen Colombard Semillon
Turkish winery Sevilen has winemaking facilities in both Mürefte and Aydın. They also have vineyards in several locations including Mürefte, Denizli, and across Anatolia. The grapes for this Colombard Semillon wine, a new release last year from Sevilen, come from the winery’s Mürefte vineyards. Interestingly, 
while the wine is new, the vines are not.
It turns out that Sevilen has had its Colombard vineyards for something like 30 years. However, until now they used the grapes for brandy and table wine production only. Then last year, Sevilen’s team took a trip to France. There they drank an amazing Colombard-based wine and realized how good it could be. With that experience in mind, they returned to Turkey to see what they could do with the winery’s Colombard vineyard.
Sevilen Colombard Semillon 2018 Tasting Notes
While not 100% Colombard, this blend from Sevilen shows a significant step up in how they’re viewing these grapes. The wine is in fact a 50/50 blend with Semillon, another grape Sevilen has long cultivated but largely overlooked. I really love the label. I was told what it signified (aside from the half-half blend) but of course don’t remember…
The wine poured clear and bright lemon (no green tinges despite the way it looks in the bottle there). Fruit forward in the nose, lots of golden pineapple highlighted by delicate floral aromas and smoked almonds. Sipping revealed a lively wine with exotic fruit and frangipani blossom flavors offset by a touch of spritz.
This was one of my go-to wines last summer. And with a moderate alcohol of only 12.5% abv, bright acidity, and lush flavors, I expect it will be again this summer.
I ended up pairing this with a spicy coconut-lime salmon on a bed of zucchini strips and it wasn’t too bad. Food pairing is not my strength but I stumbled onto something pretty decent here!