Yesterday's post wasn't part of the Advent challenge per say
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Foça Karası, a nearly extinct grape from Izmir’s Foça district, is currently championed by only a few wineries, namely Öküzgözü Şarapçılık. Foça Karası (foe-cha ka-ra-sih) berries are small to medium in size and slightly elongated with thick skin. They grow in kind of loose, single-lobed, medium-sized bunches. It’s a mid-ripening grape that makes aromatic wines full of sour cherry, strawberry, prune, clove, black pepper, dill, black currant leaf, and licorice. While in Turkey this grape follows the "black of" naming pattern, this grape also goes by another name: Fokiano. While we know it as Foça Karası in Turkey, in Greece Fokiano (Φωκιανό) grows mainly on the Aegean islands (and a
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Foça Karası has slowly and quietly snuck its way into the Turkish wine scene. This Aegean grape, like many in Turkey, takes its name from its local place of origin. In this case, the Foça district of İzmir. However, it goes by another name too. This is one of the few grapes Turkey shares with Greece where it is known as Fokiano and planted mostly on Ilkaria, an island near Turkey. We don't see a lot of this grape in Turkey. While championed by Can Ortabaş of Urla Şarapçılık, he himself doesn't use it. The winery really putting Foça Karası through its paces is Öküzgözü Şarapçılık. Urla-based winery Urlice
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I am so excited to share a guest piece that Moshé Cohen of In The Vineyard With kindly invited me to write! Reviving the Lost Grapes of Turkey Turkey. The mention of this country evokes thoughts of sultans and harems, sticky sweet Turkish delights, thick coffee, and hot air balloon rides over the fantastical ‘fairy chimney’ cave homes of Cappadocia. Wine is not the first thing to come to mind. Nor is it usually the fourth or the tenth. And yet, Turkey is, and for thousands of years has been, a wine producing country. Six grapes make up the backbone of wine production (with native vs international grapes): Boğazkere, Bornova Misketi,
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Öküzgözü Şarapçılık outside Izmir is one of those curious cases we see occasionally here. It is both a bulk and a boutique winery. The bulk wine generally gets shipped straight off to meyhanes and wedding halls. Rarely, if ever, can you find it commercially. Rarely, if ever, would you want to . A few years ago winery owner Rıfat Şekerdil turned his attention towards a more quality-driven approach to winemaking. With the bulk side of the winery generating enough profit to cover all the winery's operations, Şekerdil set aside his better vineyards to to grow better fruit. In the winery, he employed gentler methods and invested in oak barrels
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Hailing from some of Turkey's most easterly vineyards in Elazığ, Öküzgözü is the number one planted wine grape in Turkey. As demonstrated in my online Öküzgözü taste along, there is no shortage to wines made with this grape. Commonly found as a varietal wine but blends are also popular. Öküzgözü traditional blending partner has been the ultra tannic Boğazkere. However, we're seeing more and more blends that include more than Boğazkere or that don't include it at all. Öküzgözü's naturally high acidity makes it a great foil for any number of grapes, both domestic and international. Diren Öküzgözü Boğazkere, 2017 Diren, the only Black Sea region winery in Turkey, sources its Öküzgözü
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A few years ago I started offering monthly wine tasting events out of my apartment. Focusing on Turkish wine, I used these not only to introduce other people to how good Turkish wine can but, but also to train myself and expand my own wine knowledge. And then in March the whole world shut its doors. My daily life didn't change much, I already work from home. But social distancing and self isolation became standard. I canceled my scheduled tasting and retreated to my wine room with my cat. But I missed the tastings! They're so much work and physically exhausting. Also it's a pain to hand wash six
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I don't usually celebrate Rosé Day, pink wine not being a favorite of mine. However, this year the intermittent bright spring weather in Istanbul has gifted me with a fresh outlook on pink. So, I decided to dive into Rosé Day with a celebration of four wines from three of the wine countries I know the best: Turkey, Austria, and Greece. Rosé Day in Turkey Rosé, or blush wine has gained popularity in Turkey over the last few years. Most wineries have added at least one to their roster (although a few have done it reluctantly). Some wineries make a distinction between the two terms. Particularly if they make more
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Öküzgözü Şarapçılık's name creates a bit of confusion. It is the only winery in Turkey named not after a family name or a vineyard but after a grape. Quite often when I see a wine with Öküzgözü written in big, bold letters across the label I can’t tell for a minute if it’s a new wine by Öküzgözü Şarapçılık or if another producer is just really excited about the grape variety. Öküzgözü Şarapçılık does produce Öküzgözü. In fact its flagship wine is a 100% Öküzgözü. However, in this post we're not talking about Öküzgözü. We're talking about another Turkish grape variety, Bornova Misketi. Misket is the Turkish word for
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Rıfat Şekerdil, owner and winemaker of Öküzgözü Şarapçılık, has been a fixture in central Izmir since his father opened a small winery in the Bornova area of Izmir when Şekerdil was a child. It was while making wine in Bornova that he became curious about the little-known Foça Karası grape. Foça Karası, which literally means “black from Foça” is from the nearby town of the same name. He started with just a few rows of the grape planted alongside Cabernet Sauvignon. When Şekerdil began experimenting with it, no one else was using it to make wine* so he had no idea what to expect. He soon realized that this medium small,
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