Yazgan Vodina Foça Karası
Foça Karası is a grape we still don’t know a lot about in Turkey. In Greece, where it’s known as Fokiano, it’s grown mostly on two or three of the Aegean islands where they use it in red, rosé, and sweet wines. In Turkey, Foça Karası grows in the Aegean region in the (surprise) Foça district outside Izmir. Two of the Urla wineries include small amounts in red blends and Öküzgözü Şarapçılık has been the only winery making varietal wines with the grape.
Until now.
I don’t write about Yazgan a lot. Partially because I’ve had cause several times to be highly annoyed with them but also because, aside from the Vodina Pinot Noir, I just don’t love their wine. And yet, when I saw this at Dekante I had to buy it. Despite the rather steep sticker price of around 500 TL. The winery does have a rather interesting history though. It was founded in 1943 by Hüseyin Yazgan who was a Greek-born Turk who moved to the Izmir region during the population exchange. Four generations later, the Yazgan family still runs the winery.
Yazgan Vodina Foça Karası, 2020
For this wine, Yazgan let the grapes ferment with only the ambient yeast that came in with them in open tanks. After fermentation, the wine rested for five months in oak.
A bright, clear ruby in the glass, aromas of sour cherry and red fruits exploded from the glass. Red flowers, an earthy hint of clay pot, and Chinese 5 Spice powder wound their way around the fruit. The palate displayed persistent, linen-like tannins and high acidity with flavors of sour cherry, red plum, mahlep, Chinese 5 Spice, and li hing powder. The finish was, for me, blessedly short.
I felt that they acidity was too high and threw off any balance the wine could have otherwise achieved. Is that the grape or the way Turkish winemakers are treating it? I have had similar feelings about the acidity in Öküzgözü Şarapçılık’s Foça Karası wines as well.