The Quiet Rise of Foça Karası
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 blends it with Syrah, a wine I’ve written about previously. Now nearby Ayda Bağları & Şarapçılık has also debuted Foça Karası in a blend.
While Rıfat Şekerdil of Öküzgözü Şarapçılık makes wine with a number of grapes, domestic and international, his real passion lays in Foça Karası. In 2003 he began a project to revive Foça Karası. In his Foça-based vineyards Şekerdil propagates this nearly lost grape, planting more vines every year. It plays a huge part of his Phokaia line, initially in red blends but as of 2018 also a single varietal red. In 2019 he added single variety Foça Karası blanc de noir and rosé wines to his catalog.
Ayda Bağları & Şarapçılık, located in the southern İzmir district of Urla, also cultivates limited amounts of Foça Karası vines. I would really love to see a varietal from Ayda to compare it to Öküzgözü Şarapçılık’s wine. Whereas the latter grows the grape in its close to sea level home of Foça, Ayda’s vines sit high in the hills around Urla. Currently though, Ayda only uses the grape in blends.
So, how are the wines?
Öküzgözü Şarapçılık Phokaia Blanc de Noir, 2019
Öküzgözü Şarapçılık made its blanc de noir via direct press, fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks.
Alcohol: 13.9% abv
Appearance: pale hay
Nose: medium intense lemon, pear, peach, guava, and linden blossom
Palate: A little bit of a let down after the nose. Shy and almost grudgingly displaying overripe pear, lemon peel jam, and baby’s breath with a musky floral back breath. Medium (-) body with medium acidity and a short finish.
Öküzgözü Şarapçılık Phokaia Foça Karası, 2019
2019 saw the second varietal Foça Karası from Öküzgözü Şarapçılık. This one spent just three months ageing in French barrique, a significantly shorter amount of time than the 2018.
Alcohol: 13.9% abv
Appearance: pale ruby
Nose: black cherry, mulberry, moss, black pepper, clove, freshly split wood
Palate: Very earthy on the palate with a core of mossy/woodsy underfloor and freshly turned earth accompanied by notes of sour cherry. Medium-bodied with low tannins, medium acidity and short finish.
I have yet to try Öküzgözü Şarapçılık’s 100% Foça Karası rosé but you can check out my reviews of their other wines here.
Ayda Winery VinAida 5, 2018
There’s no mystery surrounding the providence of Ayda’s new wine, VinAida 5. This wine blends together five grapes: Foça Karası with Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. Like all of VinAida wines, the grapes for this blend fermented in oak barrel. The blend also aged in oak for 12 months and was filtered using potato startch before bottling. Fun fact, Ayda Bağları & Şarapçılık is the only certified vegan winery in Turkey.
Alcohol: 13.3% abv
Appearance: intense, deep ruby
Nose: Black fruits, plum, fresh fig with a streak of black pepper and tree bark
Palate: We did let this breathe but I think it needed longer and frankly probably a little more time in the bottle to age. The wine ended up being more textural than flavorful. Structured tannins that did not go away. These were persistent bad boys (I loved it). Tannins aside everything else fell into a very medium category with a medium (+) body, acidity, and finish. Some fruit present on the palate with black cherry and forest berries and a touch of forest spice.
Happily I do have another bottle of this that I’ve set aside to age a bit more so I’m looking forward to see how it evolves!
Check out my other reviews of Ayda wines here.