Kalecik Karası

Drinkers are getting into something of a fizz over Turkish sparkling wine.

"We are selling out very quickly. We cannot meet the growing demand especially as the New Year [celebrations] near," said Candaş Mısır of the Vinkara winery an hour from Ankara.

Years ago, during the harvest season, I was strolling in the streets of Kalecik, a small town close to Ankara, when I noticed a strange handwritten note on a box of grapes for sale. It wrote "şişe kaçkını," with a rough translation meaning "escaped from the bottle." Of course I said to myself, just the right wording; these were the grapes that were not good enough for the bottle.

Rose of the World! That was her name. Gülcihan; when literally translated, "gül," meaning rose in Turkish, and "cihan" is world. We only met briefly, about two months ago. It was a wine-tasting event in Ankara; her smile was contagious, warm and hugging. 

The vast vineyards of businessman Lucien Arkas are located close to the antique city of Metropolis near İzmir in western Turkey. During a recent business trip to İzmir, at a lunch in Arkas' vineyards, I thought once again about how valuable the grape is for these lands, where grapes and mythology coexist. 

Throat Scratcher and Bull's Eye? Not exactly the ideal words to provoke one's appetite to a new culinary experience. But these are the key words to a surprising coupling of Turkish wines yet to be discovered. In Turkish they are known as Bo?azkere and Öküzgözü, two red grape varieties lovingly known by Turkish wine connoisseurs.