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The Art of the Harvest #WinePW

 

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For this month’s #WinePW, host Gwendolyn from Wine Predator has invited us all to Re/Consider Harvest: How will global warming change what we eat, drink, grow? You can view the original invitation here. Whether or not you wrote about it, if you’re interested, join the conversation on Twitter on Saturday, September 12 at 8am Pacific/11am Eastern/10am Central/6pm Istanbul by following the #WinePW hashtag.

While climate change is as much an issue in Turkey as anywhere else, my three jobs got a little out of control this last month and I wasn’t able to badger harvest/climate change information out of any of my wineries. However, as an old hand at harvests of all sorts, I do want to take the chance to praise those working the harvests. There is an art to harvesting that I don’t think city folk can ever truly grasp. While I now choose to live in a city of 20 million, I started life as a country girl. As such, I learned to appreciate that art by working many and varied harvests.

The Art of the Harvest

Harvest work is skilled labor. You need to make sure the produce sustains no damage, and that you don’t either! all the while working as fast as you can. Because you get paid by the amount you pick. I have a scar on my left hand sustained from improper use of a sickle. Skilled laborer I never was.

Before retirement, my father worked as a mechanical engineer. However, he came from a farming family. Several of his brothers had commercial farms of one stripe or another. My father had a hobby farm my siblings I had to work. Whether or not we wanted to do so. Hint: none of us ever did. But because of him, and because summer jobs were scarce in my small, agricultural village, I have worked harvests for blueberries, strawberries, corn, pears, apples, peaches, and hay as well as having been involved in the annual slaughter or one or another animal.

For the last couple years, Turkey has faced a shortage in just such skilled labor. Families who have traditionally followed harvests from one end of the country to the other have tried to emigrate or seek other jobs. Much comes down to the failing Turkish economy. Inflation is high and the Lira has devalued at a crazy rate. When I moved to Turkey in 2013 it was 1.7 TL to 1 USD. This week it’s closer to 7.6 TL and briefly last summer it plummeted to almost 10. That combined with ever increasing alcohol and luxury tax amounts increase the price of wine greatly every year. Wine demand goes down and inflation means that laborers are doing the same amount of work for less and less money every year.

Despite my current involvement in wine, I’ve not actually worked a harvest. I’ve done the picturesque pick a row and take lots of pictures for Instagram along the way thing. But even that much combined with my own farm work history has given me great respect for the seasonal workers who chase harvests across the seasons.

Narince, the twice-harvested grape

For this topic I want to talk about the grape Narince. Both the most ubiquitous white Turkish grape but also the most endangered. For whatever reason (when asked why people just shrug at me and say “tradition”) it specifically Narince grape leaves used for Turkey’s many stuffed grape leaf mezes and dishes. Narince hails from the Black Sea region in Turkey and the vast majority of Narince vineyards remain there today. Independent growers own most of those vineyards. Those vineyards then see a double harvest: once for the leaves then again for the grapes. The problem for the grapes is that the leaves mature much sooner and get harvested with no regard for how a nearly non existent canopy will effect the grapes.

Some wineries have solved this problem by tightening contracts with the growers to give precedent to the grapes. Few have established their own vineyards. However, a handful have decided to abandon the Black Sea entirely and plant Narince in their own home vineyards. Vinkara Wines, located outside the Turkish capital Ankara, is one of the latter.

The lower latitude and altitude of Central Anatolia makes for riper, higher sugar content grapes. As such, Vinkara’s Narince wines (they make one unoaked and one with oak ageing) have a fuller body and flavors that lean more towards stone fruit than the light/medium-bodied citrus-driven wines of the Black Sea.

Vinkara Mahzen Narince, 2018

Thanks to the warmer climate, this Narince is not a simple wine. Even before the oak ageing. Golden on the pour and redolent of baked tree fruit, luscious peach,  nutmeg, vanilla, and walnut aromas. On the palate dry, medium body with really nice, linear acidity. Flavors are baked tree fruit, apricot, baking spices (in a spicy but not sweet way), and flowers, with hints of caramel and cream. Medium long finish of vanilla custard. Medium-plus body with a whopping 14% abv but delicately balanced; ergo a bit dangerous. Lovely.

Despite most of my practical harvest experience being with summer crops, the word “harvest” always rings the autumnal bell for me. And the rusticity of a galette appealed to thoughts of fall. A favorite autumn crop has always been pears. One of my zillions uncles was a commercial orchardist and I cannot count the times we’d arrive home from wherever to find bushels full of peaches, pears, and apples (depending on the season of course) on our doorstep. Another uncle was a commercial pig farmer. I’m incredibly happy I never had to work that particular harvest. But I eagerly reaped the benefits. So for this month’s #WinePW harvest theme I combined them both into a sweet-savory pork sausage-pear-honey-thyme-goat cheese galette.

The pairing was really lovely. Because the Vinkara Mahzen Narince had some oak on it, the combination of baked pears from the galette and the wine really made the more delicate fruit flavors in the wine pop. I was also surprised and delighted to find that the additional honey I drizzled on the galette just kind of slid right into the wine’s flavors and mingled well.

The harvest continues!

Don’t forget to check out what harvest delights and surprises the rest of the #WinePW crew discovered! And join us tomorrow on Twitter at 8am Pacific/11am Eastern/10am Central for our discussion.

• Our Good Life is celebrating Harvest Time at Twin Meadows Winery.
• The Quirky Cork discusses The Art of the Harvest.
• Asian Test Kitchen pours French Style Wines by the Sea from Windy Oaks (With 3 Fab Food Pairings)
• Somm’s Table posts A Harvest at Forlorn Hope & Juicy Lucies.
• Avvinare declares Robert Biale Petite Sirah & BBQ, A Perfect Match.
• Always Ravenous hosts a Fall Harvest Dinner with Wine Pairings.
• Crushed Grape Chronicles highlights Regenerative Agriculture at Tablas Creek – A Meaningful Way to Farm.
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla shines the spotlight on Donkey & Goat: The Brandts Bring Natural Farming Philosophies Into the Cellar.
• Exploring the Wineglass describes Harvesting the Land While Overcoming Global Changes.
• Our host Wine Predator has A Harvest Conversation with The Ojai Vineyard’s Adam Tolmach and Fabien Castel.