Turkish Wine of the Week - Gordias 2012 Boğazkere

I fell a little in love with Gordias wines previously after trying the Kalecik Karası and Narınce. Then one afternoon in Sensus Galata I found MORE. More Gordias wines! Including a Boğazkere (55TL) and the "throat burner" Turkish grape has long been a favorite.

I really let the anticipation on this one build and took some time to enjoy the deep, purply red color. Then on to the nose; what is that? Seriously it took me about 10 minutes to figure out what I was smelling. It was so familiar but at the same time utterly elusive-until it hit me; pine forests and leather.

The nose is replete with pine forest and leather with berry undertones. It was fascinating. Not in a, I couldn't stop inhaling long enough to drink way, but in a I said "This is fascinating" and smiled every time I inhaled.

There is a lot of leather in the mouth, nice medium tannins, and a long finish. At first it was a little acidy for me but it opened beautifully to bring up more leather, dark cherries, and chocolate.

Drinking this wine was a true shpadoinkel moment. It is beautiful. In a way every sip weirded me out a little because of the pine and sometimes overwhelming leather (frankly it was a little bit like being back at my dad's farm sitting in the tack barn which is surrounded by Christmas trees). I still really liked it though. I will definitely buy this again.

Especially since it pairs so beautifully with foods I like: tomatoes, salt, strong cheese, and the magical truffled almonds from Trader Joe's that my bestest friend and co-blogger Lauren sent me from the US. She sent me a 6 ounce bag last Christmas and I have managed to conserve them by eating only a few at a time. There are still a few left! However I no longer have to be so parsimonious because she bought me two more bags!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Chamlija 2014 Albarino

You wouldn't really know it based on the weather here in Istanbul but summer is over. I'd sad face if it weren't for the fact that Autumn is my favorite season. Unfortunately that leaves me with a few bottles of white still in the fridge! While I'll get around to those at some point, this makes the last wine of the Summer White Wines Chamlija's 2014 Albarino.

I was in La Cave a little white ago hoping to find another bottle of the Chamlija Viognier (I really liked that one!). I did not find the Viognier but I did find a treasure trove of other Chamlija wines, both white and red. I deeply love Spanish wines, almost without exception, so finding out that Chamlija makes an Albarino (traditionally a Spanish and Portuguese grape) was pretty exciting.

Dark golden color, the nose is very fragrant. For a dry wine, the nose is quite sweet and full of apricot and apples.

It's a bit on the edgy side with noticeable acid. I'm pretty sure this was oaked but, unlike the Mirkwood Suvla, I did not find the resultant flavors of the Chamlija to be so overwhelming. In fact it added a nuttiness that I thought was a nit touch. It has a pretty big body for a white wine with a palate filled with citrus, maybe a hint of orange blossom?, apricot, apple, and white flowers.

I really think I might like this one. I don't think there is yet a Spanish grape I've met and haven't liked and considering Albarino is similar to Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Riesling (all grapes I generally enjoy) I think I was set up to like this from Go!

The 95TL sticker price is a little dear but with the current exchange rate I'm more than willing to shore up the local economy by putting money into expanding my wine collection with some higher quality wines!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Yanık Ülke 2014 Muscat

I've been shopping a lot recently at Senus which is home to the largest collection of Yanık Ülke wines I've soon. In fact for a while it was the only place I saw any wines by this maker (they've been popping up now at La Cave as well).

Yanık Ülke, which hasn't been winning any awards from me yet, has the dubious honor of producing a Muscat that is both the most expensive (50TL) Muscat I've had here...and the worst.

If the wine were just the nose then it would have been a fair (although still not particularly good) wine. The aromas of apple, honey, and flowers were promising. Unfortunately the nose lied. Lied, lied, lied. While the aromas came through on the palate, if faintly, so too did its thinness and astringency. There was none of the beautiful orange blossom that made me fall in love with Turkish Muscats. It was also a great deal drier than I like a Muscat.

I like discovering new wines but this one was so not worth the price of admission. From now on when I want a Muscat I will stick to the Ancyra or Leonas.

On the good new side, I decided it was time to finally get a wine rack. In the past I only ever had one or two wines on hand at any one time. However with the support of a regular paycheck and the plummeting Lira I have built a fair collection. A collection which has been hanging out in boxes and bags on my floor. Not cool.

So following our aquarium trip, M and I went to Ikea where I got two of their nine-bottle racks. And then proceeded to swear and yell a lot when assembling them. You know, like you do with everything from Ikea that requires assembly. It was worth it though! Look how much better this is!

Now I just have to figure out an organizational structure for the eight-nine bottles in the refrigerator.

Hungarian Guest Wine - Gelleri 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

I've been really lax about posting the Hungarian guest wines! I still have something like four to go! So on that note, next up is the Gelleri 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon.

I quite liked this one. If I recall correctly we may have gone through the Gelleri stall's stock of this one evening. We started out as four people and by the fourth or fifth bottle we'd collected a few more disgruntled colleagues. Each new person joining us went to get another bottle. The drinks stalls had a 500 Fiorent deposit on glasses and you could return them to any of the wine vendors to get back the deposit. Or do what we did that night. At five to 11 (closing) our group (which had swelled to 12-ish people) descended on the stall and, instead of asking for our money back, we asked that they give us the Fiorent equivalent in wine. So after drinking at least ten bottles at the table we turned in 12 500 Fiorent glasses which bought us a fair few more bottles of 2200 Fiorent wine. Which we then drank by the lake until we got rousted by Hungarian security guards and returned to the hotel.

I really quite liked this one. I believe it was my favorite at this point in my tour of Hungarian wine. For one thing, there's my theory about how if I like the color I will like the wine. The Gelleri Cabernet Sauvignon was a really lovely raspberry red, not at all opaque. The nose, full of red fruits, was a little jammy. On the palate the berries, cassis, and pepper were complimented by light but well-integrated tannins and acid. This is certainly not a steak eating Cabernet, rather a nice easy drink.
Not a big wine but the well-balanced flavors filled my mouth and lingered for a smooth finish.

All in all, a winner. And only about $8.

Beauty Is Pain

For a year and a half now I've been searching for the perfect next tattoo. I wanted something that was Turkish but that was still me. I've played with some tulip designs I found on ceramics that while tulips, also looked a little like a feather. Nothing worked. Then, on the Blue Cruise tour in July, I saw it. The perfect design. On a bloody bookmark of all things.

Thanks Alison!

Having finally found the design I decided to do it as a birthday present to myself. I knew it was going to be pricey but to me price wasn't the most important issue...language was. I was not about to trust my middling Turkish to ink and needle. So started looking for tattoo artists; which was really easy in the end since I just walked three doors up the hill from my apartment. Between his art and his excellent English I was pretty well sold on Shape Tattoo...but his decor was the final deciding factor.

Dude has a Michigan license plate on his wall!!

Sherlock bites harder than this.

 

Taking it like pro!

It's been three years since my last tattoo. That one I got in DC one sunny November day I played hooky from work. I did not like that job and the pain of getting a tattoo was preferable to being in the office. I remember how much that one hurt though. The ubiquitous "they" say some of the most painful places to get tattooed are the spine (my last one) and the inside of the arm (this new one). Between the remembered pain and the double anticipation of it for this one-this would be my very first multiple sitting tattoo-I was a ball excitement and nerves.

Outlining

Filling in

Half-way done!

There were certainly a few wince-worthy moments. We took a few short breaks but in about 90 minutes we were done with the first half! Unfortunately those few painful moments will be multiplied for the next sitting because he only just started on the inside of my arm. I'm not really looking forward to the next appointment!

A week later I went back for my second sitting. This time sans photographer sadly and my selfie taking ability isn't awesome. I had a shameful moment during which I wished for one of those ridiculous selfie sticks.

And yeah, the inside of the arm really is a painful spot. For the first few minutes, until my arm dulled a little to the pain, I could actually feel my skin trying to shrink away from the needle. This sitting seemed to go a lot faster than the first one did so that was a blessing. However between the yoga breathing and being so tired I truly almost fell asleep on the table a few times I am happy to say that the pain wasn't really all that bad. Actually it hurts more now. Burns like fire actually.

Almost finished!

During this last week the first half graduated from fiery pain to intense itching, which is actually almost worse than the pain. Now though I'm half insane itching and half burning pain. My nerves are super confused. I also have to go through those first few days of bleeding ink again. The bleeding and flaking of ink always creeps me out a little.

Really hard to get a selfie of this.

 

 

I went out a few hours later for dinner with E&M and felt (and must have looked) like a pretentious model. I had to walk with my left hand on my hip so I could hold my inner arm away from body! And then of course, after dinner, I fell. Because, well, me. So the walk home I was walking (limping) like a spastic, reject, pretentious model! Now my leg hurts more than my arm does. Which only proves that the magic of evil eyes (nazar boncuğu) doesn't actually work. For one thing, blue-eyed people are supposed to be naturally immune from the evil eye; for another, I now have 52 (FIFTY-TWO) evil eyes tattooed on my arm. And I still fell. On the tram tracks no less.

Evil eye magic disillusionment aside, if you're in Istanbul and thinking of getting a tattoo I highly recommend Shape Tattoo on Yeni Carsi! If I'm still in Istanbul when I'm ready for my next tattoo I'll definitely go back there; and since we're neighbors and all I'll probably drop in from time to time to share a neighborly coffee!