Dedicated Heinzelcheese followers will have noticed that I’ve been into Turkish red wine since a year or so… Well, I’ll be completely honest with you: I fell in love with Öküzgözü, one of Turkey’s many indigenous varieties (for German readers: here is the full story from Effilee). And our little fling is still going strong.
So I was delighted when my fish-smoking friend Micha Wickert (no, he doesn’t smoke the stuff that way – he produces the most delicious smoked salmon, watch out for Glut & Späne at Markthalle Neun!) gave me this bottle to try. Turkish red wine from a fish guy, hey? Well, Micha explained to me that he would love to see way more sophisticted Turkish eateries with way better Turkish wines in Berlin – YES, me says! We both agreed that the label is great and the content more than drinkable (and that’s meant the British way and therefore quite high praise), even if the price is a tiny fishbone-bit high. Never mind – what’s money for if not to be spent? And if pleasure follows suit, the better! You want to know how the wine tastes? It has a soft fruit side and a more serious, but well hidden, acidity and tannin side. You choose. It’s made from the traditional combination of Öküzgözü and Boğazkere, and I liked it even better the second day, slightly chilled… I looked at the balloons on the label, and I read up about the family-run Kocabağ winery in the ancient volcano landscape of Cappadocia, with its caves – and I want to go there! What more can a wine achieve?
PS Since June 2013 Turkish wine producers are not allowed to advertise anymore. This includes not only wine descriptions on wineries‘ websites (as you can notice on Kocabağ’s homepage), but also Turkish wine journalism in general. Ouch.
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