Turkish Wine of the Week Visits Sirince

A friend visited last week and as it's been since last October that I've been to Ephesus it seemed like a good time to go back. A lot has changed though since my last trips.

I usually take Onur Air to Izmir because if you're going to do Selcuk and Sirince all in one day, the early and late Onur Air flights give you the most time. Although I really wouldn't mind if they decided to offer a flight maybe an hour later in the morning and an hour or two earlier in the evening. 22 hour days (up at 4 am and in bed at 2 am due to delayed return flight) are not my favorite thing.

The Hercules Gate-not sure I've noticed it before

Of course I stopped to pet all the cats. Again.

If you take the 6.45 am Onur Air flight take the time for breakfast at home or the airport. Onur Air no longer provides food or beverage as part of it's service (which is a pity because the breakfast simit sandwich was kinda awesome) and now charge an outrageous 3TL for water. Also to keep in mind if you go:

• The new domestic terminal at Izmir is opened so everything is new and confusing.
• Onur Air still provides a free shuttle into Selcuk but it's not where all the shuttles used to be. An on-plane announcement said to check with Onur Air ground crew about it. We didn't see any ground crew (to be fair we didn't look as I thought I knew where I was going) but I suggest you look. Otherwise you'll be like me and wander all over the place to end up at the unmanned information desk, call information, speak Turklish, get transferred four times, and finally get someone who knows about the shuttle.
• The return shuttle (at 8.20 pm for the 10.30 pm flight near the kiosk to the side of the hospital) is still running per usual. 

I love a side trip to Sirince when I'm in Selcuk. I rather like some fruit wines, especially raspberry and peach, but even I think that most of those found in Sirince are pretty bad. Usually I go for the karadut (mulberry) which is what we did however we got a different bottle than I usually get. The Vinova is the "higher end" fruit wine sold here and it was admittedly better. If you think of fruit wines as generally being overly sweet you'd have most of those produced in Sirince pegged. The Vinova though, as I understood, has a lower concentration of fruit, is mixed with grape varietals, and is aged longer.

If you're visiting Ephesus I will always advocate for a side trip to Sirince and that you try as many of the ridiculous wines as you can (except the kiwi-really you don't want to go there) but if you're going to buy a bottle go for the Vinova.