Turkish Wine of the Week - Pamukkale 2015 Sole and 2014 Diamond

I recently saw an Instagram post from Pamukkale showing several new wines and I had to try them. I'm a bit of a magpie and am attracted to shiny/sparkly objects so the label of Pamukkale's new Sole line attracted me right away. And for 16 TL how can you go wrong?

Normally Pamukkale is not one of my go-to producers. For one thing they're responsible for Sava which is one of the cheapest wines available here and gives a bad name to vinegar. However since I can't afford to spend 90+ TL on every bottle of wine I drink I am always looking for quality inexpensive wines. I don't promise huge quality here, but Pamukkale's white Sole, which is a dry Sultaniye, is pretty quaffable.

Brilliant gold in the glass it's very aromatic with a nose of flowers and tropical fruits. It is a little flabby, there's not a lot of acid to balance the flavor which becomes a problem as the wine warms up so serve this right out of the refrigerator and you'll still get the tropical flavors without the lack of acid making things awkward.

If you decide to give this one a try make sure you drink it within a few months of purchasing it and you store it out of the light. Clear bottles like this provide no protection for the wine inside opening the wine to major sun damage.

The Diamond is another newish line from Pamukkale and also only 16 TL a bottle (The Cave) it's actually not a horrible wine. I bought it a bit on impulse but then was reluctant to open it; I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

  

In the glass it's a rather beautiful color: brilliant clear wheat-gold. I'm not sure what the grape in the Diamond is because I am no where near that good yet (possible another Sultaniye-Pamukkale seems to like this grape) but whatever it was has a very fruity nose. There's not a great deal of finish to this but the mouthwatering acid and dry, slightly oaky finish balanced well with the citrus, tropical, apple and floral flavors.

 

Is this even in the top 20 white wines I've tried this summer? No. But will you embarrass yourself if you take it to a party? Also no. For 16 TL it's really perfectly drinkable.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Papazın Şarabı 2012 Sauvignon Blanc Sauvignon Gris

I don't actually know where the Papazın Şarabı/Palivor Çiftliği crossover happens. I did some light Googling and couldn't find the connection but it was the Palivor Çiftliği logo that got me to buy this so whatever the partnership is Papazın Şarabı owes at least one sale to them. Truly I bought this bottle because there's a buck on the label and I thought it would amuse my Daddy who is a hunter.

This was not a light decision to pick up. Sure I got a giggle over the buck on the label but at 80TL from Carrefour this wasn't a small investment, especially considering that the last time I tangled with a Sauvignon Gris I was utterly unimpressed.

In the glass it's a clear, pale gold with a lot of citrus, white flowers, and a little oaky something in the nose. This one could definitely use a little breathing time as initially the acid was quite high, giving a bit of a fizz on the tongue like a Lambrusco. Once it opened up and the fizz died down it was actually rather creamy in the mouth but no finish to speak of. The aromas carried through to the palate with white flowers and a lemon/lime citrus but also with a little bit of orange at the tail end.

In the end what this was was a porch wine. It's an easily sipable wine for the afternoon you're out enjoying your garden in the sun and don't want a super challenging beverage. I won't say that it was worth 80TL, but I did not regret the money spent.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Visiting Edirne and the Arda Winery

Happily day two in Edirne was only about 35-36 C and not 38 because we had to bundle up several times to visit some more mosques.We started the day at the Eski Camii (Old Mosque) located just down the street from the Selimiye Mosque.

This is possibly the most uniquely decorated mosque I've ever visited. Rather than tiles or frescoes, the Old Mosque, completed in 1414, is almost stark of decoration except for the giant Arabic calligraphy inscriptions that dominate the walls and pillars.

After a morning wandering around the Old Mosque and the arasta (bazaar) we headed back to our hotel to check out. We stayed at the Ottoman Palace Hotel which is situated pretty centrally in Edirne. A perfectly decent hotel for the ridiculously low price (about $30/night for a large single) and the owners were very friendly. I'd stored a couple bottles of wine in their refrigerator which sparked a conversation with the owner about Turkish wines. As we were leaving he gave me a bottle of wine that his family makes for themselves!

From our hotel we headed down the street to the Üç Şerefeli Camii (Mosque of the Three Balconies). This stunning mosque, completed in 1447, was impressive even before we got into the courtyard. From outside the wall we could see that not only were the minarets decorated, they were all done in different styles.

Inside was equally lovely with soaring domes and lots of light and space. What I particularly liked was how no space was too small to decorate. Even the inside of the small domes are beautifully decorated. As sad as it is to see the country so devoid of tourists the selfish side of me enjoys it when I can walk into a mosque, museum, church, etc and not have a ton of people in my photos!

In an effort to cover all the major religions in one day, we left this mosque in search of Edirne's Great Synagogue-of which I have no pictures because we got there to find the tall gates closed and locked. I spoke to the group of guards and we discovered that the synagogue was closed only that day. Argh! E&M tried to convince them to let us take a sneak peek but they weren't falling for it. So if you visit Edirne and want to see the Great Synagogue, don't go on a Monday!

We tried out luck next with the Christians of Edirne and drove through some narrow, tricky streets to try to find the Bulgarian church of Sveti Georgi (and don't think there weren't jokes around a mispronunciation of sveti). We got there, after successfully parallel parking no less, only to discover another closed gate-this one topped with razor wire. This was apparently not to be our day of being inclusively religious.

 

After our disappointments at the synagogue and church we were ready for some good luck which we found at one of my favorite wineries, the Edirne-based boutique winery Arda. Easily spotted from the road, the Arda winery-recognizable from the labels-sits on a vine covered hill that rises above the road. We drove through the vineyard and were slightly taken aback to find a large backhoe digging out the earth along the back wall of the winery. Sadly Arda was having a problem with damp and while the naturally well-irrigated soils are great for the vines, they weren't doing so much for the winery and its contents.

We had a great visit there, fully making up for the day's earlier failures. We met Yavuz who told us how his family got started in the wine business and about the wins they are currently producing. While I asked all my usual wine questions (root stock, irrigation, harvest, barrel ageing etc) we sampled a wide range of the wines. Arda produces three levels of wine: 

• Sekiz Dokuz: This, their low-end wine is named after the 8/9 rhythm of Gypsy music and is usually sold in bulk for banquets and large events
• Kuşlar: This mid-priced wines cover a large number of varietals including: Narince, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and Cabernet-Merlot blend and are among the best mid-priced wines you can get. The Cabernet is one of my go-to wines and even for a non Syrah fan like me, the Shiraz isn't bad. 
• Reserve: These higher priced wines are well worth the buck (or TL I suppose), especially if you can buy them at the winery where they're far more reasonably priced. The reserve line includes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet-Merlot blend, and Shiraz

Of course I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to buy wine at the winery price; especially since there were several wines there that I haven't seen in Istanbul. I also snagged two of their last four bottles of Narince! Arda is not widely available even in Istanbul but you can find them at Solera (Beyoglu-Yeni Carsi Cd.) and at the wine/whiskey store in Karakoy I can never remember the name of. Helpful I know but it's somewhere near the iskele and offers significantly lower prices.


Arda 2013 Narince: A brilliant, pale yellow in the glass with a very floral, plumeria, and pineapple nose. On the palate it was creamy giving evidence to time spent in oak with bursting flavors of white pineapple, citrus, and white flowers. I'm so sorry that I only bought two bottle of the Narince because it was gorgeous-easily the nicest Narince I've had. And to the sadness of everyone at my Arda tasting, the second bottle was corked. There were tears.

The Cabernet I have reviewed before (see the link referenced above) so I won't rehash that here other than to say it's a lovely medium-bodied Cabernet with a lot of red berry, particularly raspberry flavors.

Arda 2013 Reserve Cabernet-Merlot blend: This has only recently been released and, at the time of our visit, wasn't yet available in Istanbul. You should be on the look out for it though because even for a Merlot naysayer like myself this 50/50 blend was beautiful. Eighteen months in oak (and three in the bottle) and limited filtration gives this blend a beautiful dark garnet color and adds some fascinating oak characteristics without stripping the berry flavors. The nose is redolent with pine forest, forest fruits, chocolate, and clove. In the mouth the tannins are soft and silky and with the black fruit, vanilla, and mocha flavors give a luscious drinking experience.

 

Arda 2012 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: This one is so beautiful it gets its own picture which I took ages ago when M grilled steaks the size of our heads. Cabernet Sauvignon is often a wine that wants meat and Arda's reserve is no different.

Arda took the Mondus Vini Silver with this wine in the 16th Grand International Wine Awards, and it was well deserved. In the glass it's an intense, beautiful, purple red. The 18 months it spent in oak was obvious right from nose as the tart, dark fruit aromas were accompanied by chocolate and cinnamon. In the mouth the tannins are velvety and long like the finish. A really long finish that just kept going carrying with it the flavors from the nose: bilberry, chocolate, and cinnamon.

Side note: I had to Google bilberry because I've never had one. I was tasting blueberry but not really blueberry and it turns out that the bilberry is a wild, European cousin of the blueberry more similar in flavor to the American huckleberry (which I've also never had so that wasn't all that helpful).

So Arda; beautiful wines made with care and dedication and absolutely worth the effort to track down if you're not near Edirne.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Visiting Edirne and Chamlija's Blanc de Noirs

A few weeks ago E&M, R, and I headed out of Istanbul. None of us had ever been to Edirne, the old second capitol of the Empire, and on a roll after Bozcaada, I wanted to visit a few area wineries. So we rented a car and headed out to adventure.

Adventure that was made both hilarious and painful long before we ever got to our destination thanks to Google Maps' incredibly bad Turkish pronunciation. I realize it's just a computer but come on. I mean think goodness I wasn't the navigator because I truly had no idea what she was saying.

View of the Mosque of Three Balconies from our hotel

Monument to Mimar Sinan by his greatest mosque

Once we got into Edirne it took several wrong turns, arguing with Google Maps' bad Turkish, and asking directions twice to find our hotel. But once we got there and checked in we set off on a short walk to the Selimiye Mosque. Our first priority was the museums as our guidebooks said they were closed on Monday. The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts is in the mosque's courtyard which oddly enough made it even more difficult for us to find! We were not having good luck with Google Maps that day. Eventually find it we did and we went in to wander the air conditioned, glassed in corridors that wrap around a courtyard holding old marbles. Several of the displays included tableau of old Ottoman and Turkish life. My favorite being the section on the traditional oil wrestling where there was even a holograph showing a wrestling ceremony.

They're supposed to be wrestling but it looks cannibalistic to me!

From here we wandered across the street to the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum where we discovered more tableau, examples of traditional painting on wood, marbles, statues, and religious bits and bobs from the various cultures that passed through Edirne (once Greek Adrianopole).

It was then time to visit the Selimiye Mosque-once of the greatest of all the Ottoman mosque complexes and a triumph for the leading Ottoman architect: Mimar Sinan. Completed in 1575, a year after his death, the dome of the mosque is six cubits wider and four deeper than that of the Haghia Sofia.

It's a truly stunning creation both architecturally and in its decoration. This is probably my second favorite mosque in Turkey after the Rustem Pasa Mosque in Istanbul. I know, I know...the Blue Mosque blah blah blah-it's nice but there are others that are better and this is definitely one of them.

On our way to Edirne we made a slight detour to visit one of my favorite wineries in Turkey-Chamlija. Not only do I rarely have a bad word to say about Chamlija wines, I almost hands down love (barring Chardonnay which I don't like in general and to be fair have never tried Chamlija's). We were greeted by owner, the charming Mustafa Camlica who runs the vineyards that are dotted around Kirklareli. We sat down to do a tasting and he brought out four wines saying with a grin that we would be "starting with your favorite" as he brandished a bottle of their Albarino. It's true, it is (at least one of!) my favorite. So much so that I've blogged about it twice. However this wasn't just the Albarino-we were treated to a tasting of Chamlija's new 2015 Alvarinho Reserve. This was followed by the 2015 Papaskarasi (I've previously reviewed the 2014), the 2015 Mavrud, and the 2015 Öküzgözü-Boğazkere. Be on the lookout for tasting notes on these at a later date!

Before leaving Chamlija we made plans to order (they deliver to Istanbul if you buy a case!) and also bought a few bottles to go. One of which was the Karıştıran Bağları. You won't find this wine on the order list as it's one of two made really just for the local market but since we were there and being locals for the afternoon we bought a bottle. After a long day of driving and exploring we retired early to our hotel with some pide and Chamlija wines.

The Karıştıran Bağları is a 2015 blend of Pinot Noirs. In the nose there were a lot of black fruits like plum and blueberry as well as nail polish and maybe some gun smoke. It was slightly effervescent when we first took out the cork but as the wine opened and warmed up (we'd put in the fridge since "room temperature" that day was 38!) it smoothed out and the fizziness dissipated. No tannins or finish to speak of this was definitely the local wine-but it was fun to try!

Several cuts above the local wine was the 2015 Blanc de Noirs. A white wine made with Papaskarası (i.e. red) grapes, this was truly gorgeous. Go out and buy this now. Like right now.

Pale clear yellow in the glass it had a delicate citrus and tropical nose with possibly some floral elements. On the palate it was clean with some lively acid, an excellent finish, and flavors of peaches, tropical fruits, and lemon. Too easy to drink; this Blanc De Noirs by Chamlija definitely gets tagged as being #dangerouslydrinkable.

Day one in Edirne was a success! During day two we'll visit more mosques, attempt to round out our religious experience with a church and a synagogue, and visit a boutique winery!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Arcadia 2012 Gri

I bought this a little hesitantly since I had bad luck with Arcadia's Sauvignon Gris but my friends at Solera promised me it would be good and they have yet to steer me wrong. And I'll give another chance to anyone who uses peacocks on all its labels. At I think only 75 TL (minus the 25% take away discount) this one isn't cheap, but it won't break the bank.

Brilliant pale gold in the glass at least this Arcadia was starting off on a pretty foot. The nose was also quite lovely with white flowers, melon, and tropical notes with an underlying sweetness (probably the flowers). On the palate it was all zesty acid and citrus with tropical notes and more flowers.

The guys at Solera are rarely wrong, I did indeed like this one. This could pair very well with food but was also quite enjoyable on its own. I'm not waxing poetic as I often do for the red wines, but more white wines like this and the Kayra Viognier and I might stop drinking white wines only in the summer.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Amadeus MMX 2015 Gelber Muskateller

What is Gelber Muskateller? you ask. It's Muscat, or technically yellow Muscat. How is that different from any of the other Muscats I've reviewed? It's not really, it's the same grape. It just happens to be one of the German names (there are unbelievably almost 300 variations on the grape name!).

German white wines like Riesling and Gewürztramiener often get a bad rap as being syrupy sweet dessert wines when really that's not the case. German and Alsace Riesling, Gewürztramiener, and Muscat wines are usually produced as dry wines, not sweet. While Austrians tend to grow more of their native Grüner Veltliner, they also produce dry Riesling, Gewürztramiene, and Muscat. I assume that Amadeus chose to name the wine after the German name for the grape since they produced it in much the same manner as would the Germans and Austrians.

To be honest I was more than a little hesitant to buy this even though it was only 45 TL. I've had a bad Amadeus experience before which made me a little gun shy and the guys at the Cave are pushing this one hard. They do annoy me a bit sometimes. If I ask for a recommendation please give me one, but if I go in an tell you that I know exactly what I'm looking for and I want only those specific wines, stop trying fob other wines off on me.

Rant aside, honestly this wasn't too bad. At 14.5% it has a rather high alcohol content for a white wine but made for some beautiful legs in the glass as I swirled the bright gold wine. The nose was very tropical with floral, possibly honeycomb tones. It also felt really good in the mouth with a nice mouthwatering acid to balance the sweetness coming from the high alcohol and a smooth, clean, medium finish that carried through the aromas from the nose.

Honestly this was a lot nicer than I was expecting considering my reluctance to purchase Amadeus wines in general and the less than suave, beat you over the head with the wine bottle sales tactic from the guys at the Cave. I think I need to give Amadeus wines another try.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Sevilen 2010 Fume Blanc 900

I have never had a Fume Blanc before and had to Google to remind myself what it even was. A Fume Blanc is basically just a Sauvignon Blanc that has spent some significant time in oak. The process and name were popularized by Robert Mondavi of all people in the 60s or 70s. This particular bottle I found at Solera, no shock there. When they told me that it had been sitting on the shelf for three years, was the only one they had, and was in fact so forgotten that they didn't even know how much it cost I simply had to have it. And since they didn't know how much it cost they made up a price on the spot for me (67.50 TL with the discount).

Often when I buy wine it sits on shelf forever until I get around to drinking it. What I'm drinking as I type I bought a month ago at least.This one I opened almost immediately because I was so curious. In the glass it's a beautiful, intense gold; pretty much the same color as the label. After having spent 10 months in oak and a few years in the bottle I would expect no less.

I really have no idea what was going on in the nose. This wine drove me nuts. I had three different friends try it, two of whom thought the bottle had gone off until they got used to the intense aromas. It definitely had not gone off but for the life of me I have no idea regarding the aromas or flavors.  Smokey for sure, some citrus maybe? It's a big, full-bodied white with a long finish, low acid, and really creamy texture.

I have no idea if I liked this or not. It was my first Fume Blanc so I did not know what to expect. I now have another in my refrigerator and want to give that a try soon. I noticed that the Cave has the 2009 and I'm curious to try it...or at least ask how much it is! For the first time I have no conclusion one way or the other about a wine but I am curious to study this style more.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Bozcaada Part 2 and Amadeus 2013 Cuvee and Cabernet

On our second day on Bozcaada we shared a fantastic Turkish breakfast with our hosts that included products from the island and their own gardens as well my new obsession: tomato jam. But tomato jam Turkish style which means they were whole, kind of candied tomatoes in sugar syrup.Apparently they're soaked in lye to give them their crunchy texture?

Follow our hosts on social media!

After breakfast we headed for our first wine adventure of the day-to the Amadeus Winery. Amadeus is owned by an Austrian man who grew up in Turkey who turned a family hobby into a business. I was very luckily to be able to talk to the owner for a while about his philosophy behind wine making and the processes he uses. At Amadeus they do not age wine in oak. Partially because of the expense-barrels are not cheap but also because while oak imparts flavor components to wine, it also
takes away some of the natural flavors of the fruit. At Amadeus they prefer wines that are more fruit forward so at most they use wood chips in some of their wines.

Amadeus Vinothek on Bozcaada

From Amadeus we headed into town. Bozcaada reminds me a lot of Mykonos which, given the historic Greek population, isn't really surprising. The town is separated into two parts, the part that used to be all Greek and the part that used to be all Turkish. The Turkish side is organized typically, in that it's not; streets and buildings are laid out all higgledy-piggledy. The Greek side in contrast is laid out in very precise grids (however only because that side of town was lost in a fire and a visiting American made a city plan for them).

In our wanderings around town we ended up at Talay, the owners of the vineyard we hiked through the previous day. Talay produces a pretty wide range of wines but I'd never heard of them before. Since my trip I've noticed one or two bottles at La Cave but Talay is not a widely known name. They have a very laid-back island attitude in regards to advertising: people who we know who we are will drink Talay. Happily I was there on the island to try some of them. I went away with a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon because it took me a full 10 minutes to figure out the (to me) most outstanding flavor: green pepper. I can't believe it took me that long to put my finger on what it was but I have never had a Cabernet with such a clear green flavor like that.

 
After our visit to Talay it was back to Lavender Breeze Farm where I was put through my paces on a blind tasting of the house wines. I had two tasks:

1. Identify which was the Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon
2. Match them to three other glasses of Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon

I failed miserably. Miserably!! To be fair even my host seemed a little confused as to which was which. In any case there was a lot of laughter and fun. I need to start practicing this skill at home!

 

You would think that I would really love a wine maker who generally does not use oak and who lives by the fantastic motto of "Life is a Cabernet" would be one of my favorite makers-unfortunately not so. I've had a very up and down relationship with Amadeus and while I thought I liked a couple of their wines well enough to buy them and haul them home, I think I might have been partially under an island influence, making me perceive them more favorably than I normally would.

Quite some time ago I tried the Amadeus 2012 Cuvee and really did not like. Really did not like it a lot. And yet while at Amadeus I rather did like the 2015. Did I like it as much when I got it home and was no longer under a possible situational influence?

I actually rather did. I mean I only paid 30 TL for the bottle directly from Amadeus and I think it's a decent 30 TL bottle. Would I have liked it if I'd paid twice or more that amount at a shop in Istanbul? No.

The Cuvee Rouge is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. In addition to not aging wines in oak, Amadeus also doesn't filter its wine (again in order to keep as much of the fruit flavor as possible) but despite that the wine was a nice, clear red-no cloudiness. In the nose it was very dark cherries, cacoa, vanilla, and coffee. On the palate it's a medium-bodied wine with some soft tannins. Lots of red fruit and coffee flavors with a slightly sweet undertone from the vanilla. It went very nicely with strong Turkish cheeses.

The 2013 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (also 30 TL directly from Amadeus) was also a decent wine for 30 TL. Like the Cuvee Rouge it's a medium-bodied wine, so it's not your typical big, full Cab.

There's lots of heavy spices in the nose including green peppercorn and I think some jalapeno. Once you get past that you're treated to both black and dried fruits like prune and a little baking spice from the oak chips used in the aging. On the palate smooth tannins accentuate the fruit and pepper flavors giving you a pretty decent drinking experience. Although like the Cuvee Rouge-a decent 30 TL drinking experience.