Saturday, March 13, 2010

Wines of Turkey

On the heels of us sampling our first Turkish made wines, We read a press release this week announcing that the "Wines of Turkey Kicks off Promotional Campaign". And "a blind tasting of 49 wines from 16 wineries gave Kavaklidere, consulted to by Bordeaux-based Stephane Derenoncourt and the only Turkish winery exporting to the USA (House of Burgundy in NY and Four Potomac Wines in DC), overall honors". Kavaklidere was the winery which produced the wines we have access to purchase. The Wines of Turkey also provide an informative website that lists and describes the major grapes, regions, and wineries. Navigate over, its worth a read.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

“ Turkish Wines: Ultimate Jury Says "Beyond All Expectations" ”
Apr 05, 2010, 6:29 AM
Destination Expert
for Istanbul
Hi folks,




There has been lots of questions about wine in Turkey. Finally, at the beginning of March, Veritas, an international standards establishing organization, organized a wine tasting jury, composed of true international masters of wine. The jury was composed of the following masters of wine: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Yunus Emre Kocabasoglu(academician,host), Count John Umberto Salvi(master of wine for CNBC and Sky TV), John Downes(daily Telegraph Wine writer), Tim Atkin(Economist and Times wine commentator), Jonathan Pedley(BBC wine comenntator), Beverly Blanning(Decanter and Wall Street Journal Wine writer), Joel Butler(L.A:Times wine writer), Julia Harding(master of wine working with Jancis Robinson), Sarah Abbott(wine writer for Opus Vino) and finally Dutch master of wine Frank Smulders. 2 full days and 10 hours of blind tasting was done on 118 different Turkish Wines from 25 different wine producers from all over Turkey. With the point scale of 95-100-absolutely perfect, 90-94-extraordinary, 85-89-very good, 80-84 good and 75-79 average, and with very exacting and meticulous tasting process and very conservative marking, 3 wines scored above 90, 32 wines between 85 and 89, and 50 wines between 80 and 84. Tim Atkin, the chief wine writer for Economist magazine and the Times newspaper simply commented: "The wines we have tasted are beyond our imagination and beyond all our expectations".


Here are partial results of this jury for the top wines of Turkey (scores next to them): Melen Madeira 1955 (94), Prodom Sevilen Syrah Cabarnet 2007 (91), Prodom Sevilen Syrah Cabarnet 2006 (90), Kavaklidere Egeo Cabarnet Sauvignon-Merlot 2007 (89), Kavaklidere Sweet Dry White 1999 (88), Turasan Cabarnet Sauvignon-Merlot-Shiraz 2008 (88), Urla Wineries Bogazkere 2009 (88), Doluca Karma Cabarnet Sauvignon Öküzgözu 2007 (88), Urla Wineries Urla Karası 2009 (88) , Doluca Kav Tugra Kalecik Karası 2008 (87), Kavaklidere Avanos(Cappadocia) Narince Chardonnay 2009 (87), Doluca Signium 2007 (87), Sevilen Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (86), Melen MLN Cabarnet Sauvignon Roze 2009 (86), Likya Kızılbek Merlot & Syrah & Oküzgözü 2008 (86), Sevilen Premium Syrah & Merlot 2006 (86), Kayra Vintage Merlot 2008 (86), Büyülübağ Shah 2008 (86), Likya Kızılbel Cabarnet Sauvignon and Bogazkere 2008 (86), Sevilen Premium Syrah and Merlot 2006 (86).


The Turkish Wine Industry was very happy with the results. They now hope that more international attention will be directed towards Turkish wines.