Turkish Wine of the Week - Terra Boğazkere

It seems the one consistent thing about my wine drinking is that I drink far more red than I do white. In college I'd have told you that I was a white wine drinker but the more I explored wines and learned about grape profiles the more I realized I preferred reds. Which also means that I now gravitate towards them more often simply because I know more about them and feel more confident choosing a red wine. I really must start picking up more whites and rectify this. Before we get there though...lets discuss the Terra Boğazkere.

I've already reviewed an Okuzguzu and the Okuzguzu-Boğazkere blend but this is the first straight up Boğazkere. I really liked the blend and the Okuzguzu on its own not so much. The Boğazkere on its own-total winner.

The Terra Boğazkere had a nice plummy purple color. A Boğazkere grape's flavor profile is pretty complex: black cherry, raspberry, black raspberry, black mulberry, pepper, clove, tobacco, eucalyptus, leather (!), pine, dark chocolate, and liquorice. I'm not nearly good enough to pick out those flavors individually but did get a lot of red fruits and the tobacco in both the nose and flavor. My favorite part about the wine though? The feel of it in my mouth. There are a lot of people who don't like tanins in their wine but I am not one of them. If you're like me, you'll love this.

Even after breathing and having been opened for some time the tanins stayed very strong. This was a good wine for me as I find that I drink rather too quickly sometimes but I so enjoyed the feel of the Boğazkere that I held each sip on my tongue and rolled it around a bit thus drawing out the flavor and experience. It was like being able to both taste and feel grape skins in my mouth.

So far I'm having pretty good luck with both the Terra and Pamukkale wines and this is no exception - the Terra Boğazkere is a winner and I will most definitely be buying this again. Which I suppose doesn't help my resolution to drink more white wines...

Colorful Burano

Taking a brief break from Venice's churches (more to come!), we took a side trip to Burano. Many people go to the larger and much closer island of Murano when visiting Venice. Murano is where all the Venetian glass is made. Rather than doing that, we opted to visit the farther out Burano, famous for its colorful buildings and hand made laces and clothes.

Like Venice itself, the island of Burano is traveled either by foot or boat via a series of canals. There are no roads or vehicles. In all honesty there really is not a whole lot to do on Burano. However if you have a few days in Venice I still think it's worth the side trip because "just" walking around looking at all the colorful houses is thoroughly enjoyable!

Love it.

Unsurprisingly, Burano is full of seafood restaurants. We were surprised and pleased to discover that restaurant prices here were very reasonable. Neither of us got seafood though! Much like when I was in Prague in December, my pork deprivation reared its insatiable head prompting me to order a Carbonara. Which I may have ordered more than once on this trip...

Burano is not a huge island. We didn't wander around the entire thing but we did explore some of the back streets where fewer tourists ventured. The exploring we did do made it obvious that it's not just the central houses and buildings that received the technicolor treatment but all of them. It must be very strange to live in a place so frequented by tourists that every facet of your outside life is documented - knowing that your laundry is never private and that your undergarments will likely end up in any number of vacation photos! Living in DC gave me a healthy dislike of tourists but at least my apartment buildings were so uninteresting as to not be swarmed by a bunch of amateur photographers such as myself!

Getting to and from Burano is very simple. Take the number 12 vaporetto (which runs every half hour) from Fondamente Novo, pier C or D (I forget) which itself can be reached by several different lines such as the 4.1 and 4.2 from San Marco/Zaccaria or by walking across the city. I do strongly suggest queuing early at the pier because the boat, while larger than the regular city vaporetti, is only so large and even in March was packed to standing room only. The trip itself is about 40 minutes from F. Novo and if you don't have good sea legs you might want to sit down. Same goes for your return trip.

Also a general rule of thumb...getting on an off public transportation abroad is not a game for polite people. Regardless of the "ugly American" reputation we've earned (rightly or not, I've seen all kinds) I think Americans in general tend to be polite, especially those who have not lived in any of the US's ruder cities. Props to DC for earning #3 rudest city in the country! So you think you have a certain place in a queue but when it starts moving you realize the queue was just an illusion. I'm not advocating line jumping, but don't be afraid to jostle a bit. It's really every man for himself.

It's not major attractions, churches, or museums that make Burano worth the visit but rather the island itself. It's a nice change of pace from the narrow, shady, tourist-choked streets of Venice.

Turkish Wine of the Week - Terra Kalecik Karasi

I have found it!! I have found my hands down favorite vintner for Kalecik Karasi. This is the second winner from Terra, the first being the Narince I reviewed some weeks ago. I'm not entirely surprised how good this was though. While price is not always a sign of quality, as anyone who has ever bought wine at Trader Joe's knows, it's not not a factor. The Terra is a little bit on the "pricier" side running about 35TL ($17-ish) a bottle. It's worth it.*

I've been fooled by a nice nose before so the overwhelming (in a good way) berry/cherry that I was smelling made me very hopeful; and yet cautious at the same time. I was not disappointed. The flavor was similarly in a good way overwhelming in it's berriness. Most notably raspberry. Often a wine that has such a strong berry flavor profile, particularly raspberry and strawberry (which I did not taste but am mentioning for the purpose of berry clarity) is a sweeter dessert style wine. Not so with this one.

In addition to the pleasing berryness, the Terra Kalecik Karasi was very smooth and needed little to no airing. Despite the berry it still went very well with the types of food I would normally think to pair a Kalecik Karasi.My dinner was a simple plate of haydari, dolma, and sasksuma.

I also was indulging in some icki kofte. The flavor of the kofta was actually a little too strong for the Terra but I bring up these particular kofte because if you can, you need to get your hands on some.

Icki kofte are ground (likely) beef mixed with the Lord only knows what spices and walnuts. They're then breaded and likes fried? They're fabulous cold, heavenly baked, and may the good Lord bless the folks at Carrefour Turkey and their catering section for always having them around. They're not cheap in store or restaurant, but totally worth it.

This is likely the last Kalecik Karasi I'll review. At least for a while since this is my gold medal winner. So on to other varietals!

*I'm about 2/3 of the way through a bottle of the Pamukkale semi-dry Sultaniye so I should remind myself to not try to blog while partially bombed as my already massively bad spelling just...whew. It's bad stuff.

There are 141 Churches in Venice. Seriously.

I've been kind of hoping this post would write itself because it's going to be a bit of a pain. There are, in all seriousness, 141 churches in Venice. 115 are Catholic, there are three non catholic, and 23 on the islands (of various denominations one assumes). Certainly I did not take pictures of all of them and thank goodness because it's going to be difficult enough to match the pictures I did take with the correct corresponding church!

Chiesa di S. Stefano

Total blank

Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute

Santa Maria della Salute

Thankfully I saved one of the street maps we had. Hopefully I can remember which of the little crosses on the map we visited, and which belong to which pictures. One thing I recommend is to decide before you start visiting churches is which do you want to visit? Many of them have free entry and even those that charge have minimal fees, between 2.50-5.00 Euros. When you think that it goes mostly towards preservation and reconstruction it's really just a small amount. If you want to save a little though, because all the various entrance fees do add up, you can get a Chorus Pass which is
12 Euro and lets you into about a dozen or so different churches.

Santa Maria della Salute

Santa Maria della Salute

Very few churches allow photographs at all. Santa Maria della Salute (above) was one of the few that had no objections. I completely understand not using flash inside the churches. Most of these still have original artwork. Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari (below somewhere) has a giant freaking Titian. A Titian. A giant one. It was beyond incredible. The painting practically glows from light it seems to generate on its own. So yes, I get no flash-but no pictures at all? Lame.

It's on the tip of my tongue...

Chiesa di San Rocco (R) & Scuola Grande di San Rocco (L)

Scuola Grande di San Rocco

Chiesa Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari

Rather than taking a vaporetto from Fondamente Nove on our return from Burano we decide to walk. While Venice is a remarkably easy city to get around in, especially for a European city, we got knocked slightly off our planned course and found ourselves in the Pizza San Giovanni e Paolo. What a happy accident. The church itself was covered in scaffolding but we visited first its library (free) then the church (2.50 Euro) and were so happy we'd stumbled upon them.

Not a clue

Chiesa di San Giovanni e Paolo

The library which I think actually connects to the Ospedale Civile had not only remarkable art and ceilings, as seen above, but a vast collection of medical books in a variety of languages, tools, and curiosities. I recently read a rather fascinating book called Stiff by Mary Roach. While the book's main point is what happens to cadavers donated to science, Ms Roach discusses a little bit about the history of surgery. After reading her book and seeing some of the tools on display here I am more happy than ever to live in the modern age. Even with the absolutely unnecessary and outrageous cost of health care in the US.

Yes that says: 'amputation'

Hell to the no.

Chiesa San Giovanni e Paolo was one of the few churches that allowed indoor photography. Which just made me even happier and more willing to pay the miniscule entrance fee. We saw several churches done in this style: exposed brick, groin vaulting supported by (in this case) Doric columns, and lots of windows. It gave me a very indoor while outdoor feeling that I found unbalancing and yet really cool.

One of these days I'll figure out the level tool in PS

I love Istanbul, don't get me wrong, and it's not that Christians aren't allowed to be Christian or practice their religion in Turkey (for the moment at least)...we just can't really do it openly. Most churches which have managed to remain churches live behind walls that also contain our worship. So as a Catholic it's such a difference to be in a Catholic country. It's like I was able to let go of a breath I was unaware of even holding. We were in Venice for four days and could literally have spent the entire time visiting churches and likely still would have missed some. If you even sort of kind of like to look at churches though, this is your city! Maybe just keep better track than I did of which is which!

Also no clue

Turkish Wine of the Week - Vinkara Kalecik Karasi

And we're on another Vinkara wine this week. I'm going to say that by and large there isn't (or I haven't found it yet) a bad Kalecik Karasi, but this would be close. I begin to suspect that Vinkara just isn't producing a lot of winners.

Since I didn't have a great deal to say about this particular Kalecik Karasi I looked it up on my new favorite website, Wines of Turkey, to get a little bit more information about it. Apparently we must all pretend to be British when we talk about this wine and add an -er at the end of it: Kah-le-djic-car-ah-ser. Grown largely in Anatolia (semi-central Turkey), Kalecik Karasi produces a medium-bodied wine, low tanins, with a fruity flavor, and red fruit in the nose. Which would be why I like it so much. I lean towards the reds that have more of a berry flavor profile. Kalecik Karasi also has something that I've never seen as a wine description before...a top note of cotton candy. Yup. Cotton candy.

I'd say that this is probably the "Italian wine" of Turkey as it pairs best with pasta, pizza, tomato sauces etc. Although having just recently been in Italy where I was reminded of the complicated flavors of some of the more complex Italian wines I'm not saying that you could compare this to one of them. I had one red in Venice, a Schioppettino, that just about knocked me off my chair.

I did in fact have this with a pizza I ordered from one of Beyoglu's premiere pizza places: Miss Pizza. And after I finished the pizza, Sherlock tried to eat the box.

Like the Vinkara Okuzguzu, the Kalecik Karasi was not particularly remarkable and is my least favorite of all the Kalecik Karasis I've tried. So while not horrible, I'm not going to recommend this particular iteration to anyone since there are so many better Kalecik Karasis out there. In fact I think I recently did find my favorite and the review for that will be up soon.

All things cardboard belong to Sherlock.