Turkish Wine of the Week - Suvla Reserve 2014 Roussanne-Marsanne

I'm always leery of white wines but I got talked into this one against my better judgement. When I see "aged for 8 months in oak barrels" usually I run the other way. Sigh, there's a reason we pay attention to our instincts. But with the way the TL is going these days (sorry about that, Turkey) a 97TL bottle isn't as horribly expensive as it used to be.

Out of the bottle it was a lot paler than I expected, a very soft yellow. The softness of the tint belied the strength of the nose which was very perfumey and full of citrus and oak. Right there my concern over those eight months in oak barrels doubled but I gamely pressed on.

The first sip was very thick on the tongue and cloying, like honey. Then...I got hit in the mouth with an oak 2x4. A shudder ran through my body as it registered the extreme oakiness. I truly could not taste any other flavors for the oak.

I needed to recover from that first sip so I set the wine down and steeled myself for another round in which I could hopefully taste more than the barrel. This time, it was soft but with a bit of an acid backbone, buttery...and oaky. Oaky, oaky, oaky. It was like Suvla managed to fit the entirety of the Mirkwood Forest into the wine which, one must admit, is quite a feat.

I don't want to hate on this but ack, not for me. However if you like oaky as $@!% wines you'll like this. In fact I poured a glass a day later for a friend who not only laughed when I warned him he'd be drinking the Mirkwood Forest (#bless) but who also really liked it. In the end regardless of what experts (or amateurs like me) say, wine is a matter of taste and you should drink what you like. For me what I like does not include probably 90% of dry white wines whereas my friend obviously does like dry whites. If your palate is like my friend's then I think you'd really like this one.

Hungarian Guest Wine - Dorgicsei Juhfark 2009

Aside form a late harvest white I have yet to open, the vast majority of wines I brought home from Hungary were reds. However a talkative young man at the Dorgicesi hut convinced me that I should try a wine made from a traditional Hungarian grape and got me to give their Juhfark a try.  For 1200 HUF (just over $4) what could it hurt?

 

Absolutely nothing, that's what it could hurt. Or couldn't hurt more accurately.

If scents are colors then the color of the Juhfark and the nose match perfectly. The wine is a beautiful golden color that seemed almost reflected in the hints of honey in the nose. Actually, it smelled a great deal like a cider-full of apples with those undercurrents of honey.

It did more than smell like a cider; it rather tasted like one too; a non-carbonated (which is not to say flat) cider. The Juhfark is medium dry with a nice level of acid just shy of being crisp. It's a little buttery on the tongue with apples, honey, and possibly orange blossoms. Unsurprisingly it went very well with dried apricots, dates, and apples and honey.

I'm very glad I got talked into buying this! If you're going to be in Hungary any time soon I fully recommend this one.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Suvla 2014 Blush

Continuing my forays into pink wine I agreed to a bottle of Suvla's 2014 Blush (Cabernet Sauvignon). I generally like a Cab so I didn't figure I go terribly wrong getting one that just didn't sit as long with the grape skins.

I didn't go terribly wrong...nor did it exactly blow me way either.

To start with, it's a very attractive looking wine with it's peachy, salmon-like color. The nose was also quite nice: fruity with maybe some hints of oak and a scent that was very familiar but frustratingly elusive. On the palate it was low in tannins (odd for a Cab but likely the nature of it being a blush), medium acid, and a long finish. The majority of the flavor on the palate seems to have been lost on me but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. The Suvla 2014 Blush is a definitely dry, clean wine that drinks pretty easily.

I can always tell when a wine did or did not impress me. If I wasn't blown away by it then my notes are few and very basic. However if I loved a wine then my notes read like a bloody romance novel. Written in collaboration by Victor Hugo and Orhan Pamuk-two of the most overly wordy writers I have ever had the (mis)fortune to read. As much as I hate to not gush over a Suvla wine...my notes here were pretty basic.

Hungarian Guest Wine - Vylyan 2012 Ordog

We continue with our "guest" posts on Hungarian wine!

The Vylyan 2012 Ordog we found at a restaurant one evening. Our choices were limited to only three reds (one of which was immediately eliminated for the sin of being a Merlot) and of the two remaining options, the Vylyan won because of the fantastic description:

Because this is Hungary, the description in the menu was in Hungarian, English, and German. I have no idea what the Hungarian says but the English translation was pretty boring telling is only that "barrel aging makes this wine really demonic". It's in the German though that we found the best description: "Der Teufel der alten Legende ist liebevoll!" Or: The Devil of old legend lives!

Even the label reflected boasted of the wine's demonicness (demonocity?)!

I'm not really sure what a demonic wine should taste like but I rather don't think it would taste like the Vylyan. They pulled us in with clever advertising and then gave us the old bait and switch.

The clear, cherry red color gave way to a slightly woody nose with underlying scents of red fruits and spice. Once it hit the palate though I realized that the description was the most exciting thing about it. Not that I've ever done free association games with wine and religion before but were I to think about what a demonic wine would be like, I would think of something dark, heavy on the tannins, maybe to the point of being chewy, with lots of spice, maybe some tobacco, and dark fruits.

I would not think of a wine that's a little on the flabby side with low tannins and a mouth puckering tart, black currant and sour cherry flavor. That's what we got though. Still entirely drinkable but I certainly felt a little cheated.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Sevillen 2012 W

A while back E and I trekked out to the Kanyon mall to visit Macro Center-a place I have avoided for two and a half years because I heard it was addictive. Macro Center, you see, is the import grocery store. In the end I was actually pretty disappointed by it. My local Carrefour carries a lot of the same things; although I was thrilled beyond measure to find large tubs of red curry paste! No more having to get people to bring/send me the itty bitty pots of Thai Kitchen paste. I was of course hoping that the import store would have a decent selection of foreign wines (and I heard that you could get them cheaper there than at La Cave)...

I bought local wines. Who goes to the fancy import store and comes home with local products? Apparently I do. The imported wine selection was slim and, like at many of the alcohol stores in Istanbul, it was a selection of the bottom of the barrel wines at top shelf prices. No thank you. So I purchased a couple Turkish wines I'd never seen before, one of which was Sevillen's 2012 W.

Frankly I was drawn to this because of the label. I'm not too proud to admit that I often choose wine based on how attractive I find the label so, kudos to the ad people. This particular label reminded me of "Wicked" which has long been both one of my favorite books and musicals.

The W is a blend of Semillion and Sauvignon Blanc, a blend we tried (in reverse) recently with Suvla. The W is a very pale straw yellow with a delicate floral, citrus, apple nose. On the palate it's clean, dry, and with a long finish with a lot of citrus and apple. Really lovely. We really liked this one. 

The W went beautifully with our dinner that night of grilled vegetables, Turkish carrot salad (recipe below!), and...the Heaven...pork sausage. Which we bought at the Macro Center. I love you, Devil's Meat.

I would definitely by Sevillen's W again. We all really enjoyed it and even as much as I love wine even I have to say that it can be difficult to find a wine that you like both with and without food and that is an easy drinking experience. I may even dare to blaspheme and say that I liked this better than the Suvla iteration...

Turkish Carrot Salad:

• 4-5 large carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3-4 big cloves of garlic, crushed
• 500 grams thick yogurt (suzme if you're in Turkey, otherwise Greek yogurt should work)

1. Heat the oil over medium flames and cook the grated carrots with salt and pepper until they're about half done, you want them still crunchy. Frankly I don't know why you want to half cook them but the chef on our blue cruise (who taught me the recipe) said to do it. When they're (half) done set them aside to cool.
2. Crush the garlic cloves and combine them with the yogurt.
3. When the carrots are cool, combine them with the yogurt and let your taste buds explode!