Blog

Further Experiments with Sungurlu: Yaban Kolektif Küpte Sungurlu

 

---

Founded by Umay Çeviker and Levon Bağış, Yaban Kolektif is an effort to, as their website says, “…reunite viticulture and winemaking in Turkey with its past and forgotten values.” The manifesto goes on to say:

Moreover, we lost our grape growing culture, winemaking techniques, traditions, festivals and rituals shortly after the forced population exchange in the last century. It will perhaps never be possible to fully recover this memory. Anatolia is losing its grape heritage day by day and the danger is not past even for the varieties we think have been saved.

What practical steps does Yaban Kolektif take towards this goal? In addition to being a sort-of winery (more on that below)

Yaban aims to contribute to current efforts towards this goal with a practical model. While joining the ranks of Turkey’s wine producers, Yaban Kolektif determines the ideals it will pursue as follows:

• Saving grapes from extinction
• Introducing better farming practices to the independent growers with whom they work
• Make wine with native yeasts and ensure it reflects regional characters (i.e. not overwhelmed by oak or obvious international styles)

Previously, I wrote about Yaban Kolektif’s other efforts with Sungurlu and, spoiler alert if you missed that post, I wasn’t overly impressed. But when the Yaban Kolektif Küpte Sungurlu, an amphora-aged version, came out, I had to try it. But let’s talk first about this grape.

Sungurlu

Honestly, I don’t have a lot of information to give about Sungurlu. Despite Yaban Kolektif’s multiple wines made with it (and now Diren’s), there’s almost no published information about the grape’s ampelographic properties. For years many confused it with Central Anatolian grape, Hasandede. The grapes do look similar with short bunches of medium-sized, round, golden-green berries. 

The variety first came to our attention in 2015 when Umay Çeviker won the Geoffrey Roberts award for his work with it. Through his efforts, Urla Şarapçılık released the first commercial Sungurlu wine in 2017 as part of the winery’s Discovery Series. 

A Black Sea grape, the variety comes from the Sungurlu district (and one assumes, that’s how it got its name) of Çorum. The Çorum province, like much of the region, is a mix of mountains and high plateaus. Sungurlu itself sites at about 780 meters above sea level. With a largely continental climate, plentiful rain, and fresh water coming via the Kızılırmak and Yeşilırmak rivers, it is ripe for agriculture. 

Wine and agriculture have historically been important in this area. Sungurlu was initially settled by the wine-loving Hittites and subsequently also fell under the reigns of the Assyrians, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Alexander the Great, Galatians, Romans, and Greeks.

Interesting (non grape) fact: Çorum is known as a Geographical Center of Earth!

Yaban Kolektif Küpte Sungurlu, 2022

The grapes from Yaban Kolektif’s Sungurlu wines come from the Ayağıbüyük Village, southeast of Sungurlu. The vineyards, owned by Fettah Kuzurluk, sit at 1,025 meters and consist of clay schist soils. 

As mentioned above, Yaban Kolektif does not have its own winery. It has partnered with a few wineries in the past, including Asmadan and Vinolus. It’s wines now are made and housed at Heraki where Heraki co-founder José Hernandez-Gonzalez makes the wines for Yaban Kolektif. 

José left the juice in contact with the skins for 15 hours (cold maceration). He then fermented the juice in clay amphorae and plastic eggs. The wine matured for a further six months on the lees in the amphora (küp in Turkish). 

Despite being bottled unfiltered, the wine glowed a clean, golden-straw color. There was, however, a decent collection of clear crystals collected at the bottom of the bottle. 

Significantly more intense than the previous Sungurlu but with plenty of what I now think of as the grape’s signature golden apple aroma accompanied by apple and almond blossom, hints of toast and pale honey. The palate added young peach and a kiss of salinity. Medium-bodied with moderate alcohol. Silky with some nice acidity running along the sides of the tongue and good length on the finish. 

Very nice.