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Two Grapes, One Great Turkish Wine Story

 

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Many of the world’s most well-known and respected wines come from regions where it’s blends, not single varietal wines, that rule.

• Bordeaux has Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.
• Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s blend is Grenache with up to 12 other grapes!
• Valpolicella has Corvina Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara.
• Priorat blends Garnacha with Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cariñena. 

What many may not know is that Turkey has its own signature blend: Öküzgözü and Boğazkere. These grapes, which come from the broader Upper Mesopotamian landscape between the Euphrates and Tigris, tell an interesting story hinting at the country’s wine history and the origin of all grapes. 

What’s Behind Turkey’s Signature Blend?

Öküzgözü

This tongue-twisting grape meaning “bull’s eye” takes its name from its large, round shape and nearly black color. Originally grown in the red clay and sandy, limestone soils of Eastern Anatolia’s Elazığ, Öküzgözü has spread across Turkey. Plantings now flourish in Central Anatolia, the Aegean, and Thrace, making it the most planted native black grape.

Öküzgözü grapes usually produce wines that are medium opaque, garnet-colored, and medium-bodied, with soft, rounded tannins, and medium acidity. It’s a grape for those who love fruit-forward wines, offering raspberry, dark cherry, sour cherry, pomegranate, ripe plums, and cherry marmalade. It can lean a little herbaceous with mint and eucalyptus, and barrel ageing can tease out notes of chocolate, clove, and cardamom. 

Boğazkere

Grown primarily in the poor, calcareous-clay soils of Southeast Anatolia (Diyarbakır), in some of the country’s most eastern vineyards, Boğazkere berries are small, round, and blue-black in color with thick skin. These grapes do best in hot, dry climates that encourage that encourage ripening with long, sunny days. While Diyarbakır is its origin, Boğazkere is now grown in various places around the country including in Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean vineyards. 

Without a deft hand, 100% Boğazkere wines run the danger of over pressing and over extraction giving its name, “throat scratcher,” real meaning. As a varietal, the grape makes dark, full-bodied wines with dense tannins, high acidity, with a complex flavor profile. It takes well to oak and in many cases needs a little to help soften its sometimes harsh character. Aromas may include: black cherry, raspberry, blackberry, black mulberry, pepper, clove, eucalyptus, tobacco, leather, pine forest, dark chocolate, and liquorice.

Naturally Complimentary

It’s not that you can’t make varietal wine with either one, in fact there are a number of beautiful examples of both grapes as varietal wines. We’re seeing more and more varietal wines now, i fact. They have, however been traditionally blended. Why? Because they naturally compliment one another. 

To put these two grapes in more internationally understandable context, Boğazkere with its in your face tannins, is Turkey’s answer to Cabernet Sauvignon. Öküzgözü with it’s soft tannins and general ho-humness (guess how I feel about these grapes, lol) is Turkey’s Merlot. Boğazkere brings big body, acidity, and tannin to the glass along with spice and savory-earthy flavors. Öküzgözü helps round Boğazkere’s sharp corners with it’s fruitiness and more approachable tannins and acidity. 

A Historical Blend?

If you look at a wine map of Turkey, you’ll see vineyards from one border to the other, west to east and north to south. However, the majority of (native) grapes cluster around the center of the country and the majority of wineries are scattered from Thrace across the Aegean. There’s not a whole lot happening, vineyards or wineries, in the east. Yet that is whence hails Turkey’s signature blend. 

This isn’t a new signature either. Well, by 7,000-8,000 years of winemaking standards it is, but not by modern standards. The passion that’s recently gripped many wineries, urging them to uncover more and more lost native varieties is relatively recent. Öküzgözü – Boğazkere blends have been around for a while though. Even when most wineries concentrated on international grapes, these two still held shelf space. 

I can’t know how long this blend has been made. I do find it interesting, appropriate even, that the grapes making up Turkey’s signature blend come from Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia, lands that hosted some of the world’s earliest vineyards. This is where great civilizations such as the Assyrians, Hittites, and Urartu shaped early winemaking. Did Öküzgözü and Boğazkere exist then as they do now? Likely not. But grapes were being cultivated here, and wine was a common part of life for the societies that occupied these lands. Civilizations have come and gone and the grapes themselves have evolved, yet the relationship with the vine endures.

What does Anatolian wine taste like? Exploring Turkey’s many Öküzgözü – Boğazkere blends is a great place to start to get to know the flavors of Anatolia.