Vinkara 2012 Öküzgözü
I need to keep better track of my wine notes rather than scribbling them illegibly (to be fair all my scribbles are illegible) in the same notebook that I write everything else in. When I finally found the notes for the Vinkara Öküzgözü (pronounced: Oh-kooz-goe-zue) they were hidden in notes I’d made about a Marxism lecture I’d seen. The wine and lecture notes made about the same amount of no sense.
Öküzgözü grapes are grown largely in Eastern Turkey in Anatolia. They make generally nice, easy drinking wines that medium bodied, high in acidity, which would explain why it felt somewhat tingly on the tongue after first opened but also means they have the potential to age well.
Vinkara 2012 Öküzgözü Tasting Notes
The Öküzgözü has an interesting aroma profile. Some of them are not surprising, like raspberry, plum, dark and sour cherries, and chocolate; but then it gets more interesting with pomegranate, cherry marmalade, mint, eucalyptus, clove, and cardamom. I definitely got the plum and cherries (although I couldn’t tell you if I were smelling dark, sour, or marmalade) and I think the clove but the rest was sadly lost on me.
Flavor-wise, while the Vinkara 2012 Öküzgözü was quite low in tannins I would let it breathe a bit before drinking to calm down the tingly acid feeling. Unless you like that. I cannot say that I found the flavor to be particularly remarkable but it also wasn’t objectionable. Öküzgözü is going to go well with grilled meats and probably really flavorful dishes so that the wine is more of an accompaniment rather than an enhancer.
So not a fail per say on the Vinkara Öküzgözü. There certainly are more interesting Turkish wines out there and I’ll probably try a lot more before I go back to this one. I will definitely look for some other Öküzgözüs and see what a difference, if at all, the vintner makes.