VinAida Pinot Noir 2016
I do not count driving among my core skills. If I’m being honest, it’s barely a peripheral skill. Essentially, the best one can say about my driving is that I haven’t killed anyone. And that car that I totaled that one time we argued the dealership into fixing instead of scrapping. Good thing for me, my skill level (or lack thereof) actually makes me an average driver in Turkey. Which is great because I’ve had to spend the last two years driving around the country in pursuit of wine.
Gal pals on the edge
Google Maps has failed us a few times on these trips, getting my trusty navigator Istanbites and me stuck in odd places. Or leading us down ever narrowing roads that turned out to be footpaths through olive groves. Once we got stuck in a ditch on an army base. Another time we had to drive a tiny economy car through a small lake that formed after heavy rains. Speaking of rain, during the first downpour she had to practically sit in my lap to find the windshield wipers because I couldn’t remember where they lived in cars.
I promise that I really have not killed anyone.
Ayda Vineyards and Winery
While all our road trips could fill a hilarious gal pal adventure book (I’m calling dibs on Drew Barrymore to play me in the eventual film); I think the scariest drive would have to be to one of the nicest wineries we’ve been to: Ayda Vineyards & Winery. Located high in the hills above Urla in Izmir; Ayda Vineyards seems to cling precariously to the peak while its vineyards race down the steep slopes all around it. The drive up the steep and sharply curved road was more than my 4 cylinder Nissan Micra was really up for. I had to first carefully stomp on the accelerator to get the car up the inclines; then almost immediately break so we didn’t shoot over the edge Thelma and Lousie style. We got there eventually though and the wine was worth the perilous-seeming journey.
A dentist by training and profession, Ayda Kargılı Kalelioğlu and her husband Uğur went from hobby winemakers to professionals in 2008. They are proud to be a boutique winery with a production of just under 15,000 bottles annually. Ayda and Uğur do all the work in the winery themselves. They feel that by keeping operations and output small enough that they can control it themselves; they are assured of maintaining quality.
Ayda Vineyards VinAida Pinot Noir 2016 Tasting Notes
The couple both macerates and ferments all their VinAida red wines in the barrel. The Pinot Noir, one of their prize babies, went back into barrels after filtration (with potato proteins because the winery is certified vegan) for nine months of ageing before bottling.
Made from grapes grown entirely in the couple’s Gödence vineyard, the VinAida Pinot Noir reached a 14.1% abv, almost as soaring as the vineyard’s altitude. So much happening on the nose here. Initially intensely spicy with freshly cracked black pepper opened up to red fruits, dried herbs, hay, fresh pasta, tree moss, and mushroom.
Soft tannins and round acidity filled the mouth with flavors of fruit, earth, and hay. The finish lingered but was a bit on the bitter, stemmy side.
Not my favorite Pinot Noir in Turkey, not my favorite wine from Ayda Vineyards; but still all sorts of earthy elegance happening here.