03 February 2014

Turkish Wine of the Week - Pamukale Senfoni

I got fired in July but have been lucky enough to do some consulting since then. My last contract expired at the end of December so I am now well and truly unemployed. Strangely my parents, especially my dad, seem far more ok with this than I expected them to be. So what do I do with my time?

Mostly I watch TV and read. But I've also signed up for some free online classes. I'm currently learning about Roman architecture and Modernism/Post-Modernism. I was hoping the Roman architecture course would help me with my photography but so far, for a class that's taught at Yale, I'm a little disappointed. The Modernism/Post-Modernism course, taught via Weslyan, is really good though. I'm also, through the urging of a friend here, volunteering at Caritas once a week.

I know, volunteering, me. I don't volunteer. I just don't like people enough to do that. Last Tuesday we had both orientation and our first day. There was time between the two and since I wanted to limit the amount of times I had to climb up my five flights of stairs, I went to a mall with my friend. There I was thrilled to discover both a Krispy Kreme (!!) and a Watson's. Watson's was my go-to for make up and such when I lived in Taiwan and I haven't seen one in years so I was, possibly, more excited than such a discovery warrented.

Sherlock is skeptical of my singing

Anywhoodle, by the time I got home that evening I didn't have the energy to even make pasta. Pretty much all I had the energy for was to open a bottle of wine. And it was at this time that this brilliant Turkish wine review idea struck me. I was so energized by this that I started singing along to the music I had playing while putting together actual dinner.


Sherlock was less than appreciative of my singing. Possibly because opera is not my forte or perhaps she's a purist and didn't appreciate the words I made up.  I don't speak French so whenever La Habanera from Bizet's Carmen is on, I mostly just 'la la la'.

For this second wine I chose Pamukale Senfoni Sultaniye. I'm more of a red wine drinker largely only because I know more about red wine. What I know about white wine wouldn't even fill a glass and basically extends to: Chardonnay  = yuck (unless not oaked), Georgian green wine = super good, and spicy food + sweet wine = almost religious experience.



Pamukale has several Senfonis: sweet, semi dry, dry. Splitting the difference I went with the semi dry...and cannot even imagine what the sweet is like. This one was a lot sweeter than I thought it would be. However that meant it paired really well with the çiğ köfte I had for dinner because çiğ köfte is delightfully spicy.

So, Pamukale semi dry Senfoni: really lovely pale straw color, went excellently with both spicy dinner and some chocolate I had later (although better with the spicy), and tasted nicer the colder it was - got a little mawkish when it went room temp. All in all it was very drinkable and I am likely to buy it again. If I recall it was also in a decent price point, costing 20-something TL at the Carrefour.

It was really actually quite drinkable which I discovered when suddenly the bottle was 2/3 finished! No idea how that happened...

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