Turkish Delight IV – Wines of Turkey: Vinkara Winery

The next stop on our tour of Turkish wine country is Kalecik, northeast of Ankara in the province of Anatolia – home of Vinkara Winery.

Vinkara launched in 2003. They state that their mission is to “acquaint and present unique wines…produced with Anatolian grapes from the birthplace of winemaking…to an international audience of wine aficionados.” In 2008, Vinkara hired Marco Monchiero, an Italian oenologist, to improve their winemaking techniques in order to bring out the particular character of the native Turkish grapes. “Turkish wines clearly have their own personality,” said Monchiero. “Our job is to identify and expose it, understand it, and elevate & promote it.”

[Follow the series: Turkish Delight I -- Background and Kavaklidere Wine ; Turkish Delight II -- Arcadia Vineyards ; Turkish Delight III -- Sevilen Winery; Turkish Delight IV -- Vinkara Winery]

The Kalecik growing region has a very dry climate with hot days and cool nights – a classic Mediterranean climate. This province, Anatolia, is the birthplace of winemaking on our fine planet, as we’ve mentioned before. Vinkara, taking advantage of its natural terroir advantage, has chosen to focus largely on growing indigenous varietals -- Kalecik Karasi, Öküzgözü, Bogazkere, Emir, and Narince – although they do produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Riesling from juice sourced elsewhere. About 60% of Vinkara’s vineyards are planted in Kalecik Karasi, unsurprisingly and obviously a grape with origins in the surrounding region.

The good folks at Vinkara sent me samples of their Kalecik Karasi and Narince – both a “standard” version and a reserve. As with most of my previous experiences with Turkish wine, I was impressed – especially considering the price points. Also, as with most Turkish wine – all of these need a little extra decant time for best results:

Vinkara Winery 2011 Kalecik Karasi – As I’ve mentioned in some of the other Turkish reviews, Kalecik Karasi (pronounced KAH-le-djic car-AH-suh) is probably my favorite indigenous Turkish red varietal. I’ll liken it to a solid, quality Burgundy. The nose and palate both have an interesting “fresh cut wood” flavor, along with a fair amount of cherry-ish fruit. It looks very light, but the weight of this wine belies the eye. It’s got a well-balanced structure with enough tannin to hold up under most circumstances. The finish is long and smoky with a good fruit backbone. In short, this is one dangerously drinkable wine. When we had this alongside a dinner of roast pork tenderloin with carrots, chickpeas, and dried cranberries in an orange sauce, we powered through the bottle before we knew what hit us. It’s a wonderful food wine.  When I looked up the price point, I did a double take. This is a $15 wine. Get it.

Vinkara Winery 2012 Narince – The “grape leaf” wine returns to the Vine. If you’ve ever had Mediterranean stuffed grape leaves, Narince (pronounced NAH-rin-djeh) grapes commonly come from vines that produce those particular leaves. As I mentioned, this is a white that definitely needs decanting. We didn’t finish the bottle the first evening, and the flavor was much more balanced and less astringent the second day. You don’t need to wait a day, but open and decant half an hour before you try it, and you’ll be rewarded with a rich, tropical bouquet that leads to flavors of apricots and pears. It’s medium to full-weighted with a fairly creamy flavor, and the finish reminded me a little of lemon pie. I wouldn’t have recommended it the first night, but the extra air makes a big difference. It’s a pretty solid choice for a $15 bottle.

Vinkara Winery 2010 Kalecik Kasari Reserve – The Reserve differs from the standard bottle here by way of 14 months of aging in French oak, followed by an extra year of aging in the Vinkara wine caves. Boy howdy, is this a tasty wine. Like its counterpart, it looks light in the glass but packs a flavorful punch. The nose is a complex mixture of cherry, blackberry, some more of that fresh cut wood, and some floral aromas. It’s medium bodied with plenty of cherry and wood flavors. The finish is long, gentle, and softly tannic – with a little bit of a minerally chalky flavor. We opened it a couple of hours before dinner – which this particular night was one of my red sauce pastas with Italian sausage, mushrooms, and garden herbs. A delightful accompaniment. Think of this along the lines of a high-end Chianti Classico. Worth every penny of the $25 price point.

Vinkara Winery 2010 Narince Reserve – The reserve is a markedly different wine than its younger cousin above. It’s a fascinating wine, aged similarly to the Kalecik. Do a thought experiment with me. Imagine a good quality California chardonnay with a good butter/oak balance along with good apple and apricot flavors. Got it? Now dial back the weight a bit so the body is in the range of a sauvignon blanc. That’s what you’ve got here – a complex, nicely balanced, not overly heavy white that could probably stand up next to just about any food short of beef or heavy red sauces. The Sweet Partner in Crime had a work at home day (which just happened to align with a St. Louis Cardinals’ victory in the NLDS, so she was happy) and she took the opportunity to make chicken noodle soup from scratch. While you don’t typically think of chicken noodle soup as a food to be paired with wine, we pair all our food with wine for the sake of science. And, believe it or not, I would be hard pressed to find a better pairing for this wine than that delicious soup. I’m impressed with the “range” of Narince, and I look forward to trying more of these. The reserve, as with its Kalecik counterpart, is around $25.

Turkish Delight Redux (Wines of Turkey, Part II – Arcadia Vineyards)

The results of May’s 2013 Sommelier Wine Awards, a British-judged international country-on-country wine competition, were released in “Imbibe” magazine.  Quoting from that press release:

“The real surprise of 2013 comes from “forgotten” wine nations of Europe, such as Turkey, Greece, Slovenia and Lebanon. Spearheaded by producers like Kavaklıdere and Arcadia, these countries gave some of the more established wine regions a run for their money. Turkey took the competition by storm, moving to 10th place (ahead of the US and Germany!) in the medals league table. [I]n one fell swoop, the country has positioned itself as a place that ought to be on every restaurant’s radar.”

In my own wine judging event, held over a period of several weeks with a very exclusive panel of judges (two counts as a panel, yes?), I’ll make the definitive statement that I will certainly be looking for these wines as they appear on my wine store’s shelves. The second batch of Turkish samples I received were from Arcadia Vineyards. If you pop back to the Vine’s first Turkey column, I had samples from two of the three main wine growing regions – Anatolia and the Aegean region. Arcadia’s wines are from the third region: Thrace, sometimes known as Marmara. This region is on Turkey’s northwest coast near Istanbul and the Turkish border with Bulgaria and Greece. About 40% of the country’s total production comes from Marmara/Thrace.

This set of Arcadia samples centered on more well-known “Western” varietals such as cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc, rather than the indigenous varietals such as Kalecik Karası, Öküzgözü, and Boğazkere. Narince (pronounced “Nuh-RIN-djeh”) was the only indigenous grape to make an appearance. There’s a disclaimer on the bottom of each wine description on the Arcadia website that suggests giving a bottle 5-10 minutes of air before serving. As I’ve discovered, that seems to be a universal characteristic of Turkish wine. The “Turkish Ten” is a minimum guideline for the whites. Let the reds really get some breathing time for best results.

Overall, I found the Thracian wines – or at least the ones from Arcadia – a little more approachable than the ones from the other regions, but I’m still learning, obviously. I will keep you apprised.

[Follow the series: Turkish Delight I -- Background and Kavaklidere Wine ; Turkish Delight II -- Arcadia Vineyards ; Turkish Delight III -- Sevilen Winery; Turkish Delight IV -- Vinkara Winery]

Arcadia 2011 “Finesse” Sauvignon Blanc/Narince – Narince is an indigenous Turkish grape whose leaves are traditionally used to make tasty appetizers. I ran into a lush variety of floral and tropical fruits on the nose. The quick and citrusy body was followed initially by bit of an odd finish. If this wine hasn’t gotten enough air yet, it tastes a little alkaline. Once that oddness fades, which it will, it has a similiar mineral finish to a muscadet. Like a muscadet, serve it next to shellfish and it really shines. We opened this with shrimp and white beans sautéed with prosciutto. It was a lovely complement. The big fruits made the wine stand out, and the mineral flavor meshed nicely with the shellfish and beans. Thumbs up.

Arcadia 2011 “Fresh” Rosé – According to another Imbibe release, the win of a gold and a silver medal at the Sommelier Wine Awards by the rosés of Arcadia winery “would only have been more shocking had it been written in lipstick on Prince Harry’s naked butt and shown on the Ten o’clock News.” I don’t know if I would consider it quite that shocking, but I would stack this up against some of its Provence brethren. This rosé is made from cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot. It’s very much on the dry side. It boasts a firm nose of apples and melon. The body is extremely lean initially, but fattens up with air into a fairly broad, light grapefruit and melon body. The finish is dry and a bit clipped and also needs some air to not taste alkaline. Once it opens, it’s super-food friendly, and held its own against a cheese tortellini with corn and prosciutto. If you like a minerally rosé, you’ll like this.

Arcadia 2011 “A” Red Blend – Described on the label as a “Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc,” I had modest expectations for this wine, but these Turkish wines keep exceeding expectations. On first taste, I could certainly see its Bordeaux-ish tendencies, but for me, it tasted halfway between a Bordeaux and a Rioja, which is certainly not a bad thing in my book. The nose is quite full, with a fresh mixture of wood, cherries, and blackberries. The body’s got a nice weight without being too heavy with pleasant dark fruit and coffee flavors that tail off to a finish full of cocoa. I was paying attention to making dinner when I first tasted this wine, and the amalgamation of flavors snapped me out of my cooking reverie and made me say, “Whazzat?” I really enjoyed it.

Arcadia 2011 “Gri” White Blend – This pleasant white is an 80/20 blend of Sauvignon Gris and Pinot Gris. The grapes in the blend led me to expect an acidic, somewhat lean wine. Instead, I was reminded more of a cross between a Viognier and a Riesling. It’s quite floral with some herbal scents alongside. The flavor is very rich and tropical with plenty of mango and pear to go around. The body is fairly full with just a bit of sweetness that becomes less pronounced as the wine gets some air. The finish reminds me of a lemon tart. It’s quite a nice white wine, and was an excellent pairing alongside some grilled trout filets and a bulgur salad with fresh tomatoes.

Arcadia 2009 “Finesse” Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc/Merlot Reserve – This one needs more than 5-10 minutes of air, to be sure. Bordeaux blend that follows along those lines of flavors. The nose is full of cherry and herbs. The body is light-to-medium – again, think along the lines of a Bordeaux. The finish is a little on the sharp side, with some full tannins that emerge as the wine gets more air. We had it as an accompaniment to some grilled filets, tarragon potato salad and some sautéed mushrooms. It worked well as a table wine. On its own, it was decent, but not my favorite. (Full disclosure: the cork on this bottle was really stained, but the capsule was intact and there seemed to be no leakage. I don’t think there was any oxidation, but I couldn’t really tell.)

Arcadia 2011 “A”  Cabernet Sauvignon – I’m still figuring out the alchemy of Turkish wine. With Cabernet Franc in a blend, the wines seem French-styled, but this straight Cabernet Franc from Arcadia’s “A” line tasted more Italian. The tannins had a more minerally, chalky edge to them. The nose had plenty of vanilla and a little bit of earthy funk. The body was medium with cherry and woody flavors. The finish had a cocoa-and-graphite flavor that mellowed out over time. I get the sense that this wine is still really young. I opened it a full three hours before dinner and it was still tight as a drum when we sat down to eat. Lots of swirling eventually brought the flavors out. I’d probably stash this for a year or two.

Wines from Arcadia are still making their way to the U.S. They’re not available yet, but I have assurances from Olga at Vinorai Importers that the first parcels are on their way. I hope  they get here soon. These are certainly wines worth trying, especially if the price points are similar to the EU, where you can find Arcadia for 10-15 euro a bottle (about $15-25 US).

Turkish Delight (Wines of Turkey, Part I – Background & Kavaklidere)

Turkish wine. It’s different….it’s tasty…and it’s coming!

I received an invite to a “Wines of Turkey” guided tasting that sounded absolutely fabulous. Only trouble – the tasting was in Bordeaux, and the Vine’s travel budget is…shall we say…not quite that stout. I contacted Wines of Turkey directly and had a good conversation with Taner Ogutoglu, the director of this organization, which serves as an umbrella publicity group for a number of Turkish wineries and winemakers.

He offered to pass my information along to some of his colleagues around the country. Next thing I knew, I had some samples on the way. I didn’t know a lot about Turkish wine, needless to say, so I wanted a little background before the bottles started showing up at my door.

Winemaking in Turkey dates to pre-Biblical times. Evidence exists that winemaking was going on in what is now the Turkish province of Anatolia 7,000 years ago. The natives of that region introduced wine to Greek colonists in the 6^th century BC. From there, word of Turkish wine spread to Italy and France. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, wine production waned because of religious reasons. Most wine produced in Turkey during the life of the Empire (1299-1923) was carried out by non-Muslim minorities – Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians. There were “wine bars” in Christian neighborhoods where citizens could purchase wine. There were occasional religious bans on the sale and production of alcohol, but they never lasted very long. (More on this in a bit.) During the European phylloxera outbreak in the late 19^th century, Turkey’s wine production soared to keep up with the demand from France and Italy.

With the formation of the Turkish Republic in the 1920’s, most of the winemaking fell under government control, but a couple of world wars blunted the growth of the industry. In the latter half of the 20^th century, into the beginning of the 21^st, wine tourism became a major force in the Turkish economy. Word spread about the interesting native wines (of which there are nearly 800 named indigenous varietals), and the excellent terroir for growing “standard” vinifera grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Turkey is still a relatively small player on the world wine production stage, but this may be changing soon.

Most wine produced in Turkey comes from three major growing regions: Thrace (also called Marmara), on the northwest coast near Istanbul; the Aegean region, especially near the city of Izmir farther south down the coast by the Aegean sea; and in the mountains in the aforementioned Anatolia surrounding  the Turkish capital of Ankara. There are other pockets of wine production around the country. The size and geographic diversity of Turkey (it’s larger in square miles than Texas and longer than California) provides a variety of growing areas and climates.

As I mentioned, Turkey has had a number of brief periods of wine-related restriction in its history. We may currently be moving into another one of these times. In June (actually, just after the tasting I mentioned), the Turkish government passed major restrictions on the sale of alcohol. The new regulations make it illegal to sell wine during evening hours, forbid wine displays where they can be seen from a street, and prohibits advertising and promotion of wine. Winemakers hoping to stay afloat will undoubtedly begin offering more wines for sale internationally, so now’s a good time to get in on the ground floor.

What’s Turkish wine like? The notes I took have a lot of “reminds me of” statements in there. The Turkish wines I’ve tried thus far have been quite “old world” in terms of general weight and flavor. I love Mediterranean flavors, and alongside that sort of cuisine, these are winners. One thing I’ve discovered to be near universal. These wines – both reds and whites – need air. Give them plenty of time to decant and swirl them strongly, initially. Otherwise, there’s a bit of an odd alkaline characteristic which, fortunately, fades pretty quickly once it gets some oxygen.

[Follow the series: Turkish Delight I -- Background and Kavaklidere Wine ; Turkish Delight II -- Arcadia Vineyards ; Turkish Delight III -- Sevilen Winery; Turkish Delight IV -- Vinkara Winery]

The first set of samples I received were wines from Kavaklidere, Turkey’s best known winery. The main winery is located in Cappadocia in the Anatolian region, but they have satellite vineyards across the country. I received two bottles each of their “Prestige” and “Pendore” label wines. The Prestige wines are from Anatolia, while the Pendore wines hail from the Aegean region. The price point for these wines is usually around $25-30, but if Turkish winemakers have to increase export production – look for those prices to drop.

Prestige 2009 “Ankara” Kalecik Karası – One of the native grapes, pronounced “KAH-le-djic car-AH-suh,” is a Pinot Noir-ish grape. The translation of the name is “black from the small castle,” referring to the town of Kalecik which has, well, grapevines and a castle! The wine struck me as halfway between a Burgundy and a Chianti. I found it to have a very nice smelling bouquet – with strong scents of cherries and some fresh-cut wood. The initial weight feels light but it finishes strong. The bright cherry up front transitions to vanilla and then into a lingering wood and smoke finish that “bigs up” the flavor. We liked this a great deal. We had this alongside some homemade veggie burgers with a chickpea, pearl couscous, and quinoa base and some roasted beets. It’s $25-30, but as we concurred as we were talking about it later in the evening, we don’t buy a lot of $25 wine. But if we’d paid $25 for this, we wouldn’t be at all disappointed.

Prestige 2010 “Cappadocia” Narince – Pronounced “Nuh-RIN-djeh,” the name of this white grape means “delicate.” If you’re a fan of stuffed grape leaves, traditionally the leaves are from Narince vines. We read the tasting notes to try to find a good pairing, but they were translated from Turkish, so they were a little vague. I expected a flavor like a chardonnay, so I thought about using it with grilled barbecue chicken breasts with some foil packed veggies. Nope. The wine was much lighter than a chardonnay and quite minerally. It also had this weird sharpness at the end. We didn’t like it at first, so we recorked and put it back in the fridge. It hit me later…that weird sharpness was akin to the sharpness at the end of a Muscadet, which can taste almost metallic. Muscadet is a great pairing with shellfish, though. So, the next evening, we made mussels in white wine and garlic with white beans and prosciutto – a pairing we knew would work with most Muscadet. We were dead on. The flavors meshed nicely. I think it’s a bit overpriced, but if you’re into Muscadet, money is no object, and you want a change of pace, it’s not a bad option.

Pendore 2009 Öküzgözü – If there’s a more rock and roll grape in the world, I don’t know what it would be. I mean, four umlauts in eight letters! Crank up the Dokken! The grape is pronounced “Oh-cooz-GOE-zue” and translates as “ox’s eye.” The berries of this particular kind of grape are some of the largest in the winemaking world. The description made it sound like a pinot noir, but it’s actually considerably heavier than that. I thought it was much more like a merlot-based Bordeaux as anything. Lots of blackberry flavors here, along with a really nice earthiness and a lingering finish that’s full of cocoa. As such, it was too much for the chicken/asparagus/fontina combination we’d made for dinner that night, as it was just too heavy. It needs to be served alongside a good with a little more oomph, like grilled meat or some punchy cheese. We had most of this bottle on its own over the course of a relaxing evening. When we pulled out the evening dark chocolate, the Öküzgözü was a deliciously sultry pairing. Thumbs up.

Pendore 2008 Boğazkere – This was my favorite wine of the set. Pronounced “Bow-aahz-KEH-reh,” the name of the grape translates somewhat unfortunately as “throat scraper,” which is far from the truth, in my estimation. To me, once it had some time to breathe, it was reminiscent of a really nice pinot noir. It had plenty of what seems to be the Aegean terroir-based smokiness along with lots of dark, subtle fruit in a reasonably weighted body. Where it really shined was with a somewhat decadent dinner of grilled lamb loin chops with a marjoram/garlic/butter sauce along with some quick-sautéed zucchini. A meal like that sports lots of rich flavors, which the ample tannins in this wine handled with ease. Following Naked Vine Wine Pairing Rule #1, the   lamb made a truly scrumptious pairing. I felt like this wine certainly deserved the pricetag.

Over the next several weeks, I hope to provide some notes on other Turkish regions and grapes. In the meantime, ask for them in your local wine store. Turkish winemakers need our help with demand!