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Thrace Tag

HomePosts tagged "Thrace" (Page 3)

  Nearly extinct until the 1970s, Kalecik Karası has become of of Turkey's most popular and widely planted grapes. While red wines remain the most common, the grape shows great flexibility and makes blanc de noir, rosé, and traditional method sparkling wines. Below are my picks for top Turkish Kalecik Karası wines (well the red ones anyway!). It originates in the Central Anatolian region, near Ankara, in Kalecik. Fairly adaptable, the grape grows across the country now and very often gives nuances of terroir. Known for its distinctive cotton candy aroma, Kalecik Karası at its worst is a simple fresh and fruity wine without complexity but with enjoyable fruit and

  Last year I received a tasting set of Riedel Winewings from their Turkish importer KTD. One glass each for Sauvingon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir/Nebbiolo, and Cabernet Sauvignon. I use one every time I open one of those grapes, or a Turkish grape with similar properties. But it was not until I opened a bottle of Umurbey Sauvignon Blanc Chardonnay that I really put them to the test! An experiment in glassware Georg Riedel created the Riedel Winewings collection in order to maximize the qualities of these particular grapes. From the Riedel website: We chose a flat and stretched bottom, with a wing-like shape to increase the surface area between wine and

  What do you get when a popular wine bar and a great winery form a partnership? A whole mess of new wines, that's what! New wines like the Arda Kuşlu Solera Misket. Arda and Solera Solera is one of the longest-lived and successful wine bars in Istanbul. It also happens to be my local! So I have a soft spot for it and for owner Süleyman Er. Imagine my delight to learn that that for some years now he's been cultivating his own vineyards. Süleyman has made some progress towards renovating a 100 year winery on the shores of the Sea of Marmara as well. But for the time being,

  Last year, we thrilled at Paşaeli's release of four pét-nats. This year, one more joins Paşaeli's - the Arcadia Sauvingon Gris Pét-Nat. I've seen it in several shops now, but the first place (with so far the best price to boot) was at Casa Botti in Göztepe.  Sauvignon Gris Sauvignon Gris is a pink-berried mutation of Sauvignon Blanc. It is not, if you wondered, a common grape in Turkey. Of Sauvignon Blanc we have a seemingly never ending supply. But only the Thrace-based winery Arcadia grows Sauvignon Gris. Arcadia produces several wines with this grape including a blend with Sauvignon Blanc and a blend with Pinot Gris. Arcadia Sauvignon Gris Pét-Nat

  Another new-ish winery to emerge in Turkey over the last few years is Taneanda. This Thrace-based winery has put out three vintages thus far, all based on Caladoc. According to the winery's website, founder Metin İlhan based the name on the local Thracian dialect meaning something along the lines of "there?" or "what's there?". An expression that would also be accompanied by pointing the index finger to indicate a specific place. He chose this as the winery's name because he vines, which surround the winery, sit on a hilltop and are visible from afar. Caladoc is not a grape we hear about a lot in Turkey. Probably it's not really

  Cab Franc day is long over but my love for the grape goes year 'round! I've had the Arcadia A Cabernet Franc before but thought it was time to revisit it. In recent years, Cabernet Franc has exploded in popularity in Turkey. Initially it started making an appearance in a few more blends here and there. Then the wineries that had those blends released single varietal Cabernet Franc. And yet a few wineries, like Kayra, Suvla, Vino Dessera, Chamlija, and Arcadia featured it right from the off. If you visit Arcadia's website, you'll even see that the winery features the grape in the "special grapes" section. Arcadia A Cabernet Franc,

  When Arda Bağcılık first started producing wines, it focused on international grape varieties like Cabernet and Shiraz. The family-run wine has slowly been introducing native grapes. First Narince, and now the last few years, Papazkarası. Arda seems to have found its grape in Papazkarası making not one wine with it, but four. The Papazkarası series, called Gala, takes its name from the Gala Gölü (Gala Lake), close to the Aegean and near the Turkey-Greece border. Located some 170 kilometers from the winery, this is where the winery sources its Papazkarası grapes. The series includes a blanc de noir, two rosés, and a red blend. Arda Gala Blanc de Noir Papazkarası,

  Well, are they really the best Turkish Pinot Noir wines? Some of them are certainly the best in my opinion! But that title will give my SEO a much needed bump! Bloggy technical housekeeping aside, let's crack on with the wines! The below seven wines by no means represent an exhaustive list of Turkish Pinot Noir wines. I'm planning a separate post just for Ayda Bağları's Pinots (red and a rosé) so look for that soon! And of course I have written previously about other Turkish Pinot Noirs including: Urla Serendias, Chamlija's Müteşekkir, other vintages of the below wines, and various Pinot Noir blends like Chamlija's PaPiKa, Chateau Nuz,

  Akın Gürbüz has built a name for himself in Turkey as a talented winemaker and wine consultant and his latest wine, the Akın Gürbüz Hieron Oros, only solidifies that reputation. In October, 2020 I visited his winery with a friend and we were privileged to take part in a massive barrel tasting with Akın of his 2019 vintage. We did not try literally every barrel, but we tried every kind of wine in the barrels. Different plots of Cabernet and Merlot, different barrel toast levels, a few experimental grapes he had going on at the time