This month, Linda from My Full Wine Glass has challenged the #WinePW group to find those 'difficult' to pair foods. You can read her
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Narince is made into fresh stainless steel aged wines, rich oak-raised wines, and traditional method sparkling wines. They are always dry. Narince is never
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This is a semi sponsored post but all opinions are my own. While Paşaeli has built a reputation for its wines made from rescued and
Read MoreFranco Terpin's winery straddles two worlds. Well, two countries in any case. Located in San Floriano del Collio, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, the winery
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To begin, Solaris is not a wine name, it's the grape. Developed in Germany in 1975, Solaris is a hybrid grape. Now, get ready
Read MoreDo not judge a book by its cover! We all know this. Sometimes though when it comes to a wine label I forget. I'm
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I realized a few months ago that I have tried every wine from Urla Şarapçılık except the winery's rosé. Since I don't generally hold
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Last summer during a trip to Hungary, I discovered a new (to me) grape: Kéknyelű. Little is known about this grape's history. What I know for
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I love sweet wines. Perhaps I have mentioned that a time or two on this blog! I'd been curious about the Corvus Passito, having
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Asmadan winery, located in Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula, has vineyards in several locations in Turkey. Some surround the winery, others sit in the
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I love doing side-by-side wine comparisons. For example, when a producer makes multiple styles of wine from the same grape. So when I saw
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For May's Wine Paired Weekend event, Wendy Klik of A Day in the Life on the Farm has invited us to explore the wines
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Just in time for international #SauvBlancDay, my new favorite Turkish Sauvignon Blanc: Saranta Chateau Murou Sauvignon Blanc. This is a hugely popular grape in Turkey.
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Of all the random things for a Turkish company to produce, we have some pretty decent buffalo burrata here. The company recently released a
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Such is the scarcity of MMG Şarapçılık's wines that the only two vintages of their Syrah I've had were made seven years apart! One of
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It was recently pointed out to me that I never posted a list of my favorite wines from 2020. In fact, I have not
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The #WorldWineTravel blogging group continues its virtual exploration of Spain this month with a trip to Rías Baixas! Host Linda from My Full Wine
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I haven't written before about Çakır Bağcılık ve Şarapçılık. It's a newish winery, releasing its first vintage only last year. Until recently this was the
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Sauvignon Blanc wines enjoy a huge amount of popularity in Turkey. It's right up there with Chardonnay. Generally if a winery makes one, it
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To celebrate Earth Month, Gwendolyn the Wine Predator challenged the #Winophiles group to find a wine that celebrates "Loire's organic gardens." You can view
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In January, Esat bey, owner of La Cave in Cihangir, asked if I'd recently had the Kayra Vintage Boğazkere. It was his highest selling
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Selefkia Wines is one of the few (well one of the two!) wineries based in southern Turkey's Mediterranean region of Mersin. The winery makes
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This month I'm hosting the Wine Paired Weekend group's exploration of underrated European wine regions. You can read my invitation here. There are so
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I begin this post with a little bit of a rant. One of my recent wine pet peeves concerns the hype around small production
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Often in Turkey I buy wines from winemakers or wineries I like whether or not I want the actual wine. Such was the case
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Uçmakdere Winery, based in the village of the same name along the Sea of Marmara, is one of the most exciting wineries for me
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This month Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has invited the #Winophiles group to explore French grown around the world. You can view her
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I thought I'd had all of Gordias's wines. The I stumbled across a picture of this blend on the winery's Instagram feed. A wine
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In December I looked at several Turkish Cabernet Franc wines as part of #CabFrancDay (December 4), that month's #WinePW food and wine pairing event,
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Owned and operated by the Romero Marcuzzi family, Bodega El Porvenir sits on the top of the world. Sort of. Located in Salta in Argentina's
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Foça Karası has slowly and quietly snuck its way into the Turkish wine scene. This Aegean grape, like many in Turkey, takes its name
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This month Linda of My Full Wine Glass has invited the #ItalianFWT group to explore Italian grapes grown outside of Italy. You can view
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Vin Amoris is a very special wine from Vino Dessera. Winery owner Doğan Dönmez, in partnership with his oenological consultant Xavier Vignon, created this
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For our February #WorldWineTravel event, Susannah Gold of Avvinare has invited us to explore Catalunya - Emporda, Alella, Pla de Bages, Penedès, Conca de
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Yanık Ülke Bağları translates as “vineyards of the burnt land.” Located at 924 meters above sea level on the rocky volcanic slopes of the
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We spent Valentine's Day in Istanbul under both our regular weekend lockdown and a blanket of snow this year. Since we couldn't go out
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Friday heralded the Year of the Ox in the Chinese calendar. The day before happened to be a good friend's birthday. She usually holds
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Flipping through my wine notes recently reminded me that I haven't written about my favorite pirate-themed winery lately. Well, okay no, Barbare is not
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In Georgian white wine, Rkatsiteli reigns supreme. If you've had Georgian white (or amber) wine you've likely had this grape. Or maybe a Mtsvane.
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To kick of 2021, the #ItalianFWT group is embracing the cold weather. Host Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla has invited us all to
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I've been taking the Wine Scholar Guild's (Northern) Italian Wine Scholar course. Even though I have a million other things I should be doing,
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Today is Furmint Day! I love, love, love Furmint. Dry, sweet, and everything in between. Sadly, my extremely limited supply of Furmint has dwindled.
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Karaoğlan is one of those Turkish grapes few people talk about and even fewer have heard about. However, I think that will soon change.
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If Turkey has a traditional wine blend it would be Öküzgözü Boğazkere. These two grapes native to Turkey's eastern provinces (of Elazığ and Diyarbakır respectively)
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It seems difficult to think of a time when Greece and Malagousia were not synonymous. Granted my entrée to Greek wine is recent. But
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We're kicking off the new #WorldWineTravel blogging group with a trip to La Rioja! Well a virtual trip in any case! You can read
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Here in Turkey we have a grape called, Öküzgözü, which means "bull's eye." Hungary goes one step further with a wine they have: Bikavér
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Yusta Bursa is one of Turkey's newest wineries which debuted its first vintage (2017) last year. With vineyards and the winery based in Bursa-"just"
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To follow on my recent post about Turkish Bordeaux blends, I thought I'd write about two vintages of Arcadia's Finesse Bordeaux. I received these
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To kick off the 2021 #WinePW calendar, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla is hosting our discussion about Saké and other pairings for Asian
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The Renčel family has always had a homestead in in Karst. Each generation added to the homestead somehow. And while the family produced wine
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Syrah is the most popular international grape planted in Turkey. Not only is it the most popular international grape, it's one of the top
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Even before I visited one of Estate Gai'a's wineries I was a fan. While I went to the winery in the Nemea, Gai'a also
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While not the most widely planted native variety, Kalecik Karası holds a firm position as one of Turkey's Big Three black grapes. However, in
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It's Christmas Eve!!! Huzzah! Based in the Kalecik village outside Turkey's capitol Ankara, Vinkara owner Ardıç Gürsel laughingly described the winery as "the largest of
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It's almost Christmas! Really really almost Christmas! This was the second to last bottle of wine in my Advent box 'o wines. This was
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Much like I couldn't not include a sparkling wine in the Advent boxes 'o wine; I had to also include a sweet wine. I
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Yeah, I've lost track entirely of how many of these I've done. Based on the color alone I'm guessing young. Turkish. I think this a
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For today's post I'm taking a slight departure in that these bottles did not come from the pre-selected Advent wines. I was asked to
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This morning I got my second white wine designated for blind tasting. If I recall correctly, I put in only three whites for blind
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This lovely little number has been showing up in shops around the 'Bul lately. I've had it before and from that experience knew I
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You might perhaps notice the different Christmas tree. I took to the road for this particular wine tasting challenge. Which in reality was far
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To be honest, this wine did not come out of my boxes 'o Advent wine. I happened to be at a friend's for dinner
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Completely by coincidence did I include this bottle in my Advent boxes 'o wine. December has seen both #CabFrancDay (December 4) and a #WinePW
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After several days of no blind tasting I felt sufficiently recovered to tackle another today. As I spent all weekend making Christmas goodies I
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The third white wine out of the Advent box o' wine yielded another import from South Africa - a Chenin Blanc. I've had this
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No blind tasting for today, huzzah! That gives my brain a little bit of a break. If you read the title and thought to yourself:
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We celebrated #CabFrancDay on December 4. To keep the Cab Franc love going the December #WinePW theme explores Cabernet Franc Around the World! You
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The game is afoot! If my Sherlock (my cat) could speak Human that's likely what she'd have said to me this morning as I
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Should I decide to do a homemade Advent wine calendar next year I'm going to rethink a couple few things. One
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This morning my box o' Advent wines offered up my first white wine blind tasting bottle. One of my preparations involved removing capsules from
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I absolutely "cheated" today while selecting a bottle from my box 'o wine Advent calendar. When I determined which wines to earmark as blind
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This morning I finally managed to pull out a not blind tasting bottle! And the first white wine of the season too! What I
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It seems, based on a quick inspection of my Advent boxes o' wine, that I wrapped MOST of them to disguise the labels. Which
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It's #CabFrancDay y'all! In 2015 Lori Budd of Dracaena Wines and Exploring the Wine Glass created #CabFrancDay to celebrate her favorite grape. While I've still
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This morning I pulled out from my Advent boxes o' wine another disguised bottle. Probably in punishment for how poorly I did at guessing
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Mixed in my boxes of Advent wine I put a few disguised bottles. Because I don't have a wine geek community here I don't
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My homemade Advent wine calendar consists of two case-sized boxes. About two months ago I pull 26 wines from my collection and put them
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Every year I'm envious of friends in the States who get wine Advent calendars. When I was a kid I found those little chocolate
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Gordias winery, based in Polatlı (near Ankara), rests in the hands of former pharmacist Canan Gerimli. The winery posses a cleaner and Canan brings
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My brush with Jordanian wine comes thanks to my friend E who travels extensively for work. She bought me two bottles of Jordan River
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Turasan winery, based in Turkey's iconic Cappadocia, holds the spot as not only the largest winery in Cappadocia, but one of Turkey's most recognizable
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I frequently lament the vast amount of Bordeaux-style blends we have in Turkey. Partially because it does get rather tedious to drink the same
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Every time I go to Tbilisi I look for new wines I haven't seen before. One of my favorite sources is g.Vino wine bar.
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While it has been some time since my birthday (August) I still vividly recall one of the wines we drank: the Chateau Kalpak Petit
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While 2010 is not really that old as far as aged wines go, it’s old for the Turkish market. Finding wine commercially (frankly sometimes
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Today is International Xinomavro Day! This new grape holiday was established only last year. While I missed my chance to post about it in
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It's #Merlober! Earlier this month I participated in the #WinePW conversation about #Merlot which you can read about here. While my original intent was
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Tbilvino, established in 1962, has grown into a leading producer of Georgian wines with a 6.5 million bottle portfolio. The company operates two wineries;
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This week I'm continuing my #Merlober celebrations with wine pairings for two Merlots from the same Turkish winery: Claros. Claros winery comes to us from
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Öküzgözü Şarapçılık outside Izmir is one of those curious cases we see occasionally here. It is both a bulk and a boutique winery. The
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We all know Sultaniye; whether or not we actually know we do! In America we're more likely to refer to it as "Sultana" and
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Recently I participated in the #WinePW group's #MerlotMe conversation. You can read all about that here. I thought that would be the end of
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Based in the coastal town of Alaçatı south of Izmir, Gemici Family Wines/Alaçatı Şarapçılık makes wine on a small scale. In this charming little city
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While probably half the wines I buy in Greece invariably end up being Assyrtiko, or Assyrtiko-lead blends, I am always on the lookout for
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This month the #WinePW group is taking advantage of October being #MerlotMe month. See the original invitation from Jeff at Food Wine Click! here. I
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Summer is waning away here in Istanbul. While the forecast promises warmer days again, we're currently experiencing temperature drops and overcast skies. So while
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Kayseri has developed a reputation for having some great food in Turkey. Manti - the tiny yogurt-topped Turkish ravioli - comes from here. Kayseri
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Nestled in a bowl-like cradle in mountainous Bodrum and nearly lost in the riotous greenery of the surrounding agriculture grow vines of Cabernet Franc,
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Last Saturday I hosted another Turkish wine Taste Along. In addition to having a wee handful of people physically present with me, tasters joined
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