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The Best Turkish Pinot Noir Wines to Try Now

 

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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, and rosé blends. 

Some of the below seven truly are the best (again, in my opinion), several of which I keep stocked pretty regularly. Hopefully though, one of these will tickle your fancy and encourage you to find your favorite! If you have one already, share it with me in the comments!

Ma’Adra Pinot Noir

This is, without a doubt, one of my absolute favorites. I try to always have a bottle of this in my cellar. Located at about 550 meters elevation and touched by breeze from the Aegean, Ma’Adra’s vineyards provide this fickle grape with the perfect growing environment.

Alcohol: 13% abv

Appearance: medium pale garnet

Nose: Red berries, earth (literally, there was a loamy soil aroma), dried leaves, and red licorice

Palate: A silky light-weight body wrapped around a brightly acidic core, this 13% abv beauty drank far too easily. Predominately earthy flavors with cocoa-dusted red fruits and hints of black pepper completely seduced me into fandom.

Sevilen Pinot Noir

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Sevilen’s winemaker, Sibel? Not only is she a lovely, charming person but boy can she make a wine. This 2018 Pinot Noir is the winery’s first time making one and it’s a project she’s been passionate about seeing to fruition for some time. With grapes sourced from their Aegean vineyards and deft ageing in French oak, this is a wine worth waiting for.

Alcohol: 14% abv

Appearance: medium opaque cherry ruby, consistent to rim

Nose: Wow. Wow wow. Earthy right off the bat followed by layers of strawberry, tobacco, hay, lavender, and black tea.

Palate: Silky smooth with mid-palate weight and medium plus mouthwatering acidity. Flavors very much reflected the bouquet. If I could take a moment to wax poetic, imagine having a tea party with strawberry jam while sitting in a freshly tilled lavender and hay field. Completed by a nice, long finish, this beautiful and elegant wine joins Ma’Adra and Felix Culpa as a favorite.

Chamlija Felix Culpa

And speaking of Felix Culpa…I’ve had this wine a few times and posted about it previously. But I think it merits another mention here because I recently opened my last bottle of the 2014 and was blown away all over again.

Alcohol: 13%

Appearance: slightly hazy (it is unfiltered) garnet that paled toward the rim

Nose: Shazam y’all. Dirty strawberry jam in the very best way possible. Strawberry jam, hints of purple flowers, dried leaves, forest, and mushroom.

Palate: Silky tannins that wrap around the tongue then fade to leave behind earthy potting soil, strawberry, mushroom, and tobacco flavors. Medium plus linger. Keeps you coming back for more sips until, before you know it, the bottle is gone. This is a wine ageing very well.

Chateau Nuzun Pinot Noir

Located in lower Thrace, Chateau Nuzun’s organic vineyards benefit from breezes that blow off the not too distant Sea of Marmara. The Pinot Noir (which also gets included in some of the blends) ages for 15 months in a combination of French and American oak.

Alcohol: 15% abv

Appearance: medium opaque ruby

Nose: Very fruity with red berry aromas along with green herbs, spice, coffee, and cedar notes

Palate: Intensely flavored blue-black fruits on the palate, plum and blackberry followed by waves of peppers, coffee, and cedar closet. Silky texture with medium acidity and finish for an overall medium body.

Yanık Ülke Pinot Noir

Kind of sitting in the center of the vast Aegean region, Yanık Ülke’s vineyards grow on the slopes of an extinct volcano. This advantage gives the vineyards those nice, decomposed volcanic soils that are so great for wine.

Alcohol: 13% abv

Appearance: intense ruby

Nose: Intense red fruits like cranberry hit the nose first before transitioning to more of a stewed fruits character. Strawberry fruit roll-up, apple cider vinegar, sweet spices, and heavy vanilla.

Palate: Again stewed fruits with hints of coffee and chocolate and vanilla on the medium finish. Medium-bodied with silky tannins but rather low acidity gave it a fat feeling on the palate. For me there was a little too much oak (guessing a good amount of new oak) happening here overwhelming the fruit. Resulting in a Pinot that did not taste like Pinot.

Likya Vineyards Pinot Noir

Likya’s vineyards sit high in the Taurus mountains. The day vs. night temperature shifts are a great advantage to grape development allowing them to develop a full aroma profile while maintaining acidity. Because of this, even the most tannic of grapes come out of Likya’s vineyards with a lovely freshness. Pinot Noir of course does not have a tannic profile. In fact it’s known for being the complete opposite.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Appearance: medium opaque cherry juice

Nose: Red fruits like roasted strawberry in balsamic vinegar and black cherry dusted with black tea leaves and crushed black peppercorn.

Palate: Fruity-earthy but fruit really takes the back stage to things like black tea. Silky with medium plus acidity, medium plus body. Very nice.

Yazgan Vodina

I remember first having this wine absolutely YONKS ago at Sommelier’s Selection or Challenging Master Class…and then naturally I could not find it anywhere. Happily, this wine is a little easier to get ones hands on nowadays. Although when you do put your hand on it, be prepared for the outrageously heavy bottle. A couple wineries here still seem to have that ‘heavy bottle = high quality” mindset. I wish they would stop.

Alcohol: 14.5%

Appearance: deeeeep ruby

Nose: Richly fruity with boysenberry and strawberry jam aromas. Floral but in a candied violet way with an earthy-floral addition of raspberry leaf tea.

Palate: The wine spent eight months in 300 liter French oak barrels resulting a smooth and supple palate. Decadent floral and dried blueberry flavors on top of a mouthful of Ceylon tea.

All these Turkish Pinot Noir wines share some of the aromas and flavors characteristically found in the grape, but with subtle differences based on where and how the grapes were grown and what what happened to them in the winery.