Wine Accessories

Wine Accessories

Today, I'm not going to write about the wine in the photo, but I'm going to write about the accessories you see in the box. We bought this box around $ 20 from Metro market. It includes a bottle ring, a wine stopper, a wine pourer with stopper, a thermometer, and a corkscrew. I'm going to write about all of them except the corkscrew. (I'll be writing about the corkscrew in another post.)

Bottle ring / neckless

Let's start with the bottle ring first. It is a metal ring with a pice of sponge in the innter surface. When you put it on the neck of the wine bottle, you may serve the wine without the risk of having wine drops flowing down on the outer side of the bottle. The ring basically catches the drops. I found it very useful. Without this, you would have to have a tissue around the bottle because wine drops always flow on the outer side of the bottle.

Thermometer

This is a thermometer with which you may measure the temparature of your wine. The top of the thermometer (left end in the picture) is a little ticker than a normal bottle's neck. So, you can put the other end of it into the bottle and measure the temparature of the wine that you are about serving. Most of the time, the ideal temparature for serving a wine is written on the back side of the bottle. Usually, white wines are served around 6-8 and red wines are served around 16-18 degrees (Celcius).

Stopper

Here comes a stopper, which you may need if you couldn't finish all of the wine in the bottle. Previously, I showed you another stopper in this blog. This serves the same purpose. If you close the bottle with a stopper like this and put the bottle in a cooler, the wine can still be drinkable after 3 days. You would have a better result if you could use a stopper with vacuum.

Pourer with Stopper

In the last photo, you see a stopper and pourer. You can pull the thin metal ring to take out the stopper part and use it only as pourer. Unfortunately, I can't do it! Someone has done it once, so I know that it is possible, but I guess I am not enough powerfull to do it. So, I use it only as a stopper for now :)

Corvus Blend No3 2006

Corvus Blend No3 2006

We had a dreamlike vacation in Bozcaada in the summer of 2010. I mentioned this vacation in one of the first posts of this blog as one of my steps going into the wine world. At the end of the vacation, we brough a few bottles of Corvus wines to home. The last one of those wine bottles was Corvus Blend No3 2006.

We bought this wine from Corvus's wine store, where they also have their production facilities, if I'm not wrong. I remember it was around $ 45. I knew nothing about wines and wine prices then, so, I thought that it was so expensive that we should expect a miracle from within the bottle :)

The person helping us to choose said that the best time to drink this wine would be 2011. We obeyed her and waited until 2011. Since we still don't have a wine fridge, we kept the bottle in a dark and relatively cool corner in our living room.

Corvus Blend No3 2006 is made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Malbec, Karalahna, Okuzgozu, and Cabernet Franc which all grown in Corvus vineyards in Bozcaada. It has rested in French oak barrels for 24 months, in bottes (I don't know what botte is. I would appreciate if someone could comment to this post and explain what it is.) for 2 months and in the bottle for 6 months. The bottle is very elegant and there is a legend written on the lable. 

Corvus Blend No3 2006

Corvus produces a Blend from the best grapes of the year and gives a number to each Blend. I have to admit that at the time I bought this wine, when I didn't know anything about wine or about Corvus, I read the list of the grapes on the lable and I thought "this grapes can't be good, if they were good, they would produce seperate wines from each of them" :) I still bought the wine since I was curious. Well, it turns out I was wrong.

It is a strong wine with dark burgundy color, raspberry and cherry aromas on the nose, medium body, strong tannins and vivid acidity. I tasted it after it rested about half an hour in a big glass but it was not enough. Then I left home and left the wine in the glass. When I came back 9 hours later, I smelled and tasted it again. I smelled a strong, earthy aroma and the wine's taste and tannins were almost as strong as they were 9 hours ago. I liked the wine, but I think it still carries characteristics of a ypung wine. I could like it more when it rested maybe for a few months longer  in the bottle.

p.s. The bottle in the photos is in a wine box which includes wine accesorries. The box will be the subject of another post soon...

Turasan Seneler Okuzgozu Bogazkere 2007

My dinner

Thi picture shows a dinner that I had alone a few days ago. This is a regular dinner when I'm alone. It is easy to prepare, and I love it when I cooked it myself. It also goes wel with wine. I usually drink whatever wine I'd like to drink, without considering whether or not it suits with the food. For me,the wine comes before the food or food & wine match :)

I had Turasan Seneler Okuzgozu Bogazkere 2007 with this dinner. I actually opened the bottle the day before and I did not like it, again. Previously, I had tasted Turasan Seneler Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Syrah 2008 of the same group (of the wines that are indicated as exclusive on Turasan's website) and I liked it very much. That's why I was very surprized and dissappointed this time. I closed the bottle and put it in the fridge to give another chance to it the other day.

The other day, the wine rested in my glas about 30 minutes while I was preparing the dinner on the picture. I thought it was promising. After 15-20 minutes, I smelled and tasted it again. I noticed a little rotten egg. As far as  I know, this should be a sign of defect in a wine. I was surprised that nothing was wrong with the taste. I waited a little more and the smell was still there (or I thought so). I decided not to drink wine that night.

I grabbed my sneakers and took a walk on the seaside. I was too young to accept that a wine bottle can sometimes bring disappointment instead of joy and pleasure :)

Turasan Seneler Okuzgozu 2009

It is not easy to say that I didn!t like this wine, because some people put their time and effort in it. Besides, this is a gift to me from someone who visited Kapadokya recently, but i can't help it. I did not like it.

Well, this doesn't mean that you wouldn't like it. Just try to see whether you like it :)

ChinChin at Kitchenette

We will have the opportunity to order all Doluca wines in glass in Kitchenette restaurants between 2 June - 2 July.

I remember another similar fetival of Doluca when I visited Eskisehir, which is basically a university town in Turkey. All the bars were serving tons of beers to students, but I had the chance of finding a bar who was serving Doluca wines in glass. I ordered one of the red wines, but first, a white wine came. Than, they told me that they didn't have the wine that I ordered. At last, they served me another red wine.

So, this time, I have doubts that really "all" Doluca wines can be found in Kitchenette's. May be they mean that we can order in glass any Doluca wine that is in the menu. We'll see together.

By the way, I don't know what ChinChin means. Could anyone tell me?

A Movie Full of Wine: Sideways

Sideways

For the last two days, I wass pretty dazed because of a little fever and cold that caught me. So, I could not taste any wines, but I watched a nice movie with wine to tell you.

I left work earky yesterday since I wanted to go home and sleep. When I arrived home I realized that a new neighbour was moving and the voices of hammer and borer would not end. I did not try to sleep. Instead, I tried to watch tv, which I never do. After five minutes of trying, I gave up trying to find something to watch and decided to watch a movie that I first watched years ago: Sideways.

I'll try to summarize the move: It is the story of two men, one of them looking for women, the other for wine and silence only. They make a trip to somewhere in California for a few days and we watch their adventures in that trip. There is a lot of wine conversation, vineries and nice scenery to see in the movie. I should tell that there is a special focus on Pinot Noir, as if there are not any other grapesgrown in that area! (aren't there?)

When I first saw this movie years ago, I didn't know what wine is. This time, I knew about wine, but I was ill, so it did not carefully paid attention to details, but only the view of the scenery was enough reason to watch it till the end.

If there are really so many vineries in California, where you can call by and taste so many wines, I will definately go there one day!

p.s. For those who are curious, I feel better today.

Terra de France - Pinot Noir 2008 - Again

This wine is actually the same wine as the wine here. However, my impressions of the two different bottles of the same wine are very different. When I first tasted Terra de France Pinot Noir 2008, I loved and admired it. The second taste, however, was a real dissappointment for me.

If I did not open the bottle myself, I would doubt whether it was a Pinot Noir or even a wine of Terra. I don't remember when and where I bought the wine, so, I'm not sure whether it is the environmental conditions in which the wine was maintained, or it is my mood, that caused the bad impression. 

It was probably the latter. When I first drank this wine, we were at dinner our with my husband and with a friend. The wine was very nice and I guess the ambiance contributed to it. When I drank it for the second time, I had a very busy and tiring day behind and I did not really feel like drinking wine.

I took my lessons. First, pay attention where you buy the wine and how you keep it! Second, don't waste beautiful wines when you are too busy or exhausted! Third, considering that the wine is an alive thing, don't be rude and better don't touch it if you are too tired to pay attention to it! 

So, these are what I've learned today. I wanted to share it with you. If you are interested in tasting notes about Terra Pinot Noir, you can find it here.

Wine & Dine with Isa Bal

Wine & Dine event of Kayra was very special this time. In addition to enjoying an early summer evening in the garden of Mimolett with Kayra' wines and a delicious dinner from Murat Bozok's kitchen, we had Isa Bal and his conversation on wine & dine at our table.

I'm not sure which was more worth to tell you. The modest comments of Isa Bal, or Murat Bozok's low profile presenting his masterpieces as if they were regular dishes. I'm just going to tell you a few things briefly without boring you. 

Firtly, I'd like to mention that I think that anyone who witnessed the harmony of Kayra Vintage Chardonnay with a soup (jerusalem artichoke soup with vanilla) would not have a problem anymore in believing that wine can get along with any kind of food.

After the soup and asparagus salad, I tasted the Foie Gras, which is something highly glorified by French people, but is definitaly not my kind of food. It was too oily for me. (Still, I put it on a piece of brioche -meaning butter-bread, I guess- nicely and took a picture for you.) Similarly, the Hungarian Tokaji, which was included in the menu on Isa Bal's suggestion, was not my kind of wine, it was too sweet for me. However, when I tasted these two together, I can tell you that it was clear to me why sommeliers are important persons. The intense and sweet taste of the wine swept away the strong smell and oily feeling of Foie Gras. This must be what they call harmony!

Isa Bal mentioned that Tokaji did not always have to be so sweet. The wine we drank was a wine made of grapes picked up one by one. On the bottle, the expression 6 puttonyos was written. This means that 1 liter of the wine contains 150 gram sugar. If you happen to buy Tokaji, you may see the expression saying 3, 4, 5, or 6 puttonyos. For instance, 5 puttonyos means that there is 125 gram sugar in 1 Liter of the wine.

Lastly, I'd like to tell you about the main dish of the dinner, a veal steak (antrikot). I'll be s hort and to the point. If that unbelievably soft and artless looking food was a veal meat, what were the things that we had been buying from the butcher and cooking at home?

Without digging in this subject deeper, I am ending my post here wishing to have further dinners at Mimolett with wine and joy.