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Black Sea Tag

HomePosts tagged "Black Sea"

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Disclaimer: This post includes wines received as a sample. All opinions are my own. None of us had ever heard of the Black Sea grape Merzifon Karası before Likya debuted it as part of the winery's Arkeo line.  It seems it took another winery being successful with the grape for Diren, actually based in the Black Sea, to take notice and start making its own (far less superior imo) version. Then last year, Quinientos Dos (502) Vineyards, a new Black Winery, debuted its wines, including a varietal and a blend Merzifon Karası.  When I tried it last year (which you can read about here), I found a wild riot of

By 0Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  Surrounded by mountains and the verdant forests of the Black Sea region, the district of Amasya lays about 120 kilometers from the Black Sea. Although near the sea, Amasya sits high above the coast and has an inland, hot summer Mediterranean climate. While tea might be the most famous crop to come out of the region, Amasya is well-known for its apples which grow well here. And maybe soon

By 0Amber Wine, Amphora, Red Wine, Turkish Wine, Wine Reviews

  For many of us, our first encounter with amber wine, wine made in amphora, or "natural" wine was with a Georgian wine. While many countries have for centuries made wines thusly, the global trend and enthusiasm for such is often attributed to Georgia. Wine trends come late to Turkey, but they do come. These started quietly with Gelveri and have since spread. Now finding orange wines does not take much effort and a growing number of people are making amphora wines and "natural" wines. What happens though when a trend isn't a trend, but culture? Does that change the wine? For those who poo-poo amber/"natural" wines, does culture make

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I like Sevilen. Yes, it's one of Turkey's larger wineries and makes a slightly eye-popping amount of wine every year. But most of their wine is pretty solid. And I think that the winemaker, Sibel, is a rock star. The biggest argument I've always had with Sevilen is the less than top billing native grapes receive. Sure, Sevilen puts out some native grape wine, but not generally as part of the higher quality category. An exception has been the Plato series which included three wines: Kalecik Karası, Öküzgözü, and a Syrah-Öküzgözü. But no white wines. Until finally

By 1Sparkling Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  I briefly mentioned the Yaban Kolektif during a previous post about Patkara. Since that collaboration with the Asmadan winery, Yaban Kolektif has partnered with Vinolus to create two new wines from the rare grape, Sungurlu. Similar to the Patkara origin stories, Sungurlu has previously only been vinified by Urla Şarapçılık as part of its limited Discovery series. Since then, we haven't seen anything from this grape.  From Yaban's Instagram: Yaban is a step taken to reunite viticulture and winemaking in Turkey with its past and forgotten values. We lost our rich viticulture culture, winemaking techniques, traditions, festivities and rituals in a short time after the natural disasters and forced population

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Kayra Buzbağ and Kayra Buzbağ Rezerv have been around since forever. By which I mean at least the 10 years I've been knocking around Istanbul and many years prior to that. Kayra's facility in Elazığ has been there for so long that they city grew up around it. Kayra has two wineries, but the Elazığ location is dedicated to the production of its wines made from regional grapes Öküzgözü and Boğazkere. Which are the grapes that have always gone into the Buzbağ blends. Which means also that Buzbağ Rezerv has also always been a red wine. There's not been a Rezerv white until now.  Hello Kayra Buzbağ Rezerv White

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  In 2021, Diren Winery celebrated the centennial of founder Mustafa Vasfi Diren's birth. It did it the only way this winery could; by releasing a reserve Narince: the Vasfi Diren 1921 Narince. Diren and Narince are so intertwined, it's almost difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Diren and Narince In the early 1940s, Tokat-born Mustafa Vasfi Diren attended the Bursa Agricultural Vocational School. While there he became increasingly convinced that the overall development of Turkey was dependent on agriculture. Coupled with the knowledge that Anatolia is the motherland of vitis vinifera grapes; his interest in viniculture grew. Diren spent the next 18 years learning about grape

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Quite some time ago I had the opportunity to attend a vertical tasting of some of Doluca's Karma wines. These were the red blends, mainly Shiraz Boğazkere and Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü blends. You can see my review of all of those here. Since then, I also got my hands on a bottle of the white Karma. Which frankly was not entirely recently. My drinking sadly outpaces my blogging by rather a lot! While the Karma line includes three red blends (the aforementioned Shiraz Boğazkere, Cabernet Sauvignon Öküzgözü, and a Merlot Boğazkere), there is only one white in the series. Like the other three wines, the white blends together an

By 0Sweet Wine, Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Narince is made into fresh stainless steel aged wines, rich oak-raised wines, and traditional method sparkling wines. They are always dry. Narince is never sweet. No sooner were the words out of my mouth at a semi-recent wine tasting focusing on this grape than what did I see at the grocery? A semi-sweet Narince wine. Narince is the Black Sea grape. While many wineries work with independent growers in the region or have their own vineyards there, only Diren winery actually makes wine on site. Despite that, the winery has done remarkably little with the grape. I like the Diren Collection Narince quite a lot. I think it stands as

By 0Turkish Wine, White Wine, Wine Reviews

  Do not judge a book by its cover! We all know this. Sometimes though when it comes to a wine label I forget. I'm often guilty of buying, or not buying wine based on the label. I've had wines as fabulous as the label, wine as terrible on the label, terrible wine tarted up by a great label, and great wine hidden under a terrible label. The Doluca Kav Narince falls into that latter category.  This label hardly looks like the most interesting thing I've ever seen. Although to be fair I have seen far worse labels. However, it does not particularly evoke any excitement or invite one to