If you haven't heard already, I'm collaborating with a fabulous new agency that is focusing on wine tourism in Turkey! Vines & Pearls offers wine bar walking tours, wine picnics, day and overnight vineyard visits, and yacht board tastings! Although please no one book the yacht tasting. Goda will kill me for saying that
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Wine writer turned winery owner Şeyla Ergenekon and winemaker husband Çağatay cultivate organic grapes on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There they concentrate on French varieties including two of the most popular and widely planted grapes in Turkey: Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Ergenekon produces varietal wines of each of these grapes under the label Singularis. The Regius brings together these two grapes for the winery’s trifecta of premium labels. Ergenekon Regius 2013 Tasting Notes For the Regius, Çağatay aged his Cabernet and Syrah in a combination of French and American oak for 16 months. In Turkey, where the temptation to use lots and lots of new oak has prevailed for years, Çağatay's deftness
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I'm one of those annoying people who has to touch everything when they go through clothing and housewares stores. Although I am certainly trying to control the impulse during these days of COVID-19. But I'm a very tactile person. I learn by doing, not by seeing for example. And how things feel is critical for me. I might like the look of a dress or even a couch cover but the feel of the material is ultimately even more important than the look. For that reason, I particularly enjoy textural wines and one of the reasons why, for years Cabernet Sauvignon was among my go-to grapes. I drank a
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Wine writer turned winery owner Şeyla Ergenekon and winemaker husband Çağatay cultivate organic grapes on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There they concentrate on French varieties including two of the most popular and widely planted grapes in Turkey: Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Ergenekon produces varietal wines of each of these grapes under the label Singularis. The Regius brings together these two grapes for the winery’s trifecta of premium labels. Ergenekon Singularis Syrah 2013 Tasting Notes The Ergenekon Singularis Syrah is limited edition wine (1,115 bottles). As with all their wines, Ergenekon used only organic grapes for this Syrah. Aged for 16 months in French barriques, they then bottled it unfiltered; creating a wine
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The Sommeliers Selection Turkey 2017 is the gift that keeps on giving. Seriously. I discovered so many wines and wineries there that I hadn’t heard of before. It’s taking a little time but they are slowly trickling into retail shops in Istanbul now. Şeyla Ergenekon, one of the founders of Ergenekon winery, has written some of the first and only books available on Turkish wine including: Şarapla Tanışma and Türk Şarapları. I’ve had the pleasure of reading both of these. The second, Türk Şarapları is also available in English as Wines of Turkey and can be found online or, if you’re in Istanbul, at Vinus Wine & Spirits. Luckily for wine lovers, Şeyla established her own, eponymous vineyard in Çanakkale.
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February 25 and 26 Istanbul hosted the 2017 Sommeliers’ Selection Turkey at the St. Regis hotel. Organized by Gustobar, the event brought together 179 wines from 34 Turkish wineries and about eight international wineries. It was, as one might expect, rather a mad house. That’s not down to the organizers of course. Big tasting affairs like the Sommeliers’ Selection are always a little bit of a mad house as one jostles for position at the tables to get a sample. And what samples! Wines from across Turkey, Italy, France, and Chile were available. I was impressed with the selection of Turkish wines although I was sorry to not see wine from
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