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Central Anatolia Tag

HomePosts tagged "Central Anatolia" (Page 9)

  Recently I discovered that a new friend owns a yacht. And while I would love to be friends with the idle rich O is not idle, she and her husband have a travel agency here in Istanbul and the yacht is one of the services they offer. She kindly offered to take a bunch of us out a couple weeks ago for a Sunday Bosphorus cruise, and what goes better with a cruise than a nice, sweet wine like the Turasan Misket? So on a gorgeous, sunny afternoon we all met at the Kabatas dock to board the Zoe in what was going to be a three hour tour

  Last fall while in Cappadocia with my brother we stumbled upon the Kocabağ winery. I don’t recall ever seeing this wine in Istanbul so I took advantage of being there and picked up several of the winery's Emir wines. Previously the only Emir varietal I’d seen was Turasan’s so I was excited to see how many Kocabağ had. One of the things I continue to like about Emir wines is that it does not match well with oak so in all likelihood your Emir has been steel-aged. This Kocabağ Emir (40-something TL I think) was pale and brilliant in the glass with a lot of pineapple in the nose.

  Funny story. Also kind of embarrassing…while I was in Cappadocia with my brother I was determined to visit the Turasan Winery which is just 10 kilometers from where we were staying. My brother was up for being dragged along so off we went to Urgup. After a really nice lunch we headed up a steepish hill and zig zagged through some street construction until we arrived at a şarap evi (wine house). It didn’t say Turasan but according to the crappy GPS on my phone we were where we were supposed to be. Yeah, no. We weren’t where we were supposed to be. But I just shrugged and went with it.

  I fell a little in love with Gordias wines previously after trying the Kalecik Karası and Narınce. Then one afternoon in Sensus Galata I found MORE. More Gordias wines! Including a Gordias Boğazkere (55TL) and the “throat burner” Turkish grape has long been a favorite. I really let the anticipation on this one build and took some time to enjoy the deep, purply red color. Then on to the nose; what is that? Seriously it took me about 10 minutes to figure out what I was smelling. It was so familiar but at the same time utterly elusive-until it hit me; pine forests and leather. The nose is replete with

  Now is the time I try to switch to white or rose wines to beat the Istanbul summer heat. Since I am really enjoying this new winery, Gordias, it seemed a good place to start my summer trend. For one thing, I really like the minimalist goat-looking logo. More importantly though-the wines are killer. I’ve been a little on the fence about Narince wines; aside from the unicorn that is an unoaked Chardonnay, I’m just not really into dry whites. I am into Gordias though so when I found a bottle of Narince at Solera (55TL) I decided to give it a go. The Narince is not a big wine,

  I must preface this by saying that I actually drank this Turasan Syrah before the Emir I recently both reviewed and enjoyed. So…grain of salt. Since I’ve had a couple bad experiences with Turasan wines I was pleasantly surprised by one M bought a while ago. Like the previously reviewed Emir, the 2013 Turasan Syrah may have changed my mind. And at 38TL won’t break the bank. A pretty purple and a spicy, plummy nose lead to a soft wine and a mouth full of blackberries. I thought I also tasted sour cherries but either the wine was a little too yeasty or I don’t know what a red currant tastes like. According

  For the last two weeks I’ve been getting up at 3:50 AM. No one understands why and everyone thinks I’ve insane, including my cat. There really is an excellent reason: wine! I’ll wake up anytime of the day or night for good wine and this isn’t just wine; it’s wine and education (about wine). I like to drink wine, we all know this, and I like to write about it. However mostly I’m just making up things. I don’t have a very refined palate and usually only am able to taste the top notes of wines. So these last two weeks, and next week, have been an opportunity

  Tuesday morning I was sitting in the local tax office when the power wet out. I hoped it was just a flicker but we soon learned that it was all of our neighborhood. Then we heard that it was all of Istanbul…then 50 cities across Turkey. Dude. What could we do but drink wine? Earlier I’d stopped in Solera, the wine house just up the street from my apartment, where they offer 25% discount on bottles that you buy for take away, and picked up a couple new reds, including the Gordias Kalecik Karası. Country-wide power outage, candle light, and Turkish homework seemed a great excuse to break out one. I

  Vinkara is fairly widely available here in Istanbul and produces several labels: Winehouse, Reserve, Vinkara, and Quattro. They’re not my favorite producer but since I’m I’ma  drive to try all the Miskets made in Turkey I decided to give the Vinkara Quattro Dömi-Sek a go. This is the first of the Miskets I’ve tried that has truly been a semi-dry. Quite probably that’s why the  Vinkara Quattro Dömi-Sek wasn’t a favorite for me. It was not at all bad and I think, even at 35TL a bottle, I might like to give it another try and see what I think of it a second time around. I went into this

  Tursan is possibly the leading winemaker in the Cappadocia region. It’s a tough region with high elevation, grasslands, harsh, cold winters, and not a lot of lush greenery. Like many wineries in Turkey, Turasan produces several labels under its name including: Seneler, Classic, and blends. While I was in Cappadocia with a visiting friend we picked up the Turasan red blend. Not gonna lie-not my favorite. Turasan Red Blend Tasting Notes The Turasan red blend seemed to have been on a mission to include any and every possible grape including: Syrah, Boğazkere, Kalecik Karası, and Öküzgözü. In the glass this Turasan red blend was a deep purple-red color. In the nose I detected hints