The law of unintended consequences appears to be quite active in my alphabet driven exploration of the wines of the world, in that the answer to the question 'where can I find a wine made from an obscure and interesting grape variety beginning with this week's letter?', is, with increasing regularity, the M&S Simply Food in Tring and, consequently, I am a regular visitor.
How it is a small branch of a nationwide chain should carry such a wide and varied range I don't really understand. In our great capital, where I continue to be afflicted with a real job, there are a number of M&S stores within striking distance, at least one of which is spread over four floors, but none has anything like the variety that can be found in my little backwater of a home town. Well played the local management, I assume.
Week O (2014) Sevilen Okuzgozu. M&S £10.
If I knew how I would put an umlaut over each of the vowels in the variety's name and that would make look even more exotic. The name itself translates to 'Ox eye', and I can't explain why, but it may be because it has the largest berries of any Turkish variety and, perhaps, it is a size related reference. The colour seems wrong for anyone's eyes even if we are in Christmas party season and the view in the morning mirror isn't always appealing.
Anyway, onto more pertinent matters. Dark ruby with purple hints, this is a medium body run of the mill red wine, that is easy enough to drink and has nothing to make me complain about it. Damned by feint praise? Yes, I am afraid so.
It is dry, reasonably fruity, has acidity that stops it being dull, 13% abv, and 'slightly medium' tannins. Sadly,the most interesting thing about it is the name and I'm not saying that to be unkind, it's just that at £10 a bottle it is up against lots of competition.
The grapes themselves come from the mountainous Elazig region of Eastern Turkey, where it is grown in the steep sided valleys in the upper reaches of the mighty Euphrates river. The estate comprises 160 ha and is farmed by the third generation of a family whose business was initiated in the 1940's by an immigrant from Bulgaria who started with only four hectares. So the winery is a success story and they now produce 35 different wines under three ranges. In time I will explore more of Sevilen's output, especially as they have some great names, but for now I will be lead wherever else the alphabet and, quite probably the wine buyer for my local M&S, takes me.
How it is a small branch of a nationwide chain should carry such a wide and varied range I don't really understand. In our great capital, where I continue to be afflicted with a real job, there are a number of M&S stores within striking distance, at least one of which is spread over four floors, but none has anything like the variety that can be found in my little backwater of a home town. Well played the local management, I assume.
Week O (2014) Sevilen Okuzgozu. M&S £10.If I knew how I would put an umlaut over each of the vowels in the variety's name and that would make look even more exotic. The name itself translates to 'Ox eye', and I can't explain why, but it may be because it has the largest berries of any Turkish variety and, perhaps, it is a size related reference. The colour seems wrong for anyone's eyes even if we are in Christmas party season and the view in the morning mirror isn't always appealing.
Anyway, onto more pertinent matters. Dark ruby with purple hints, this is a medium body run of the mill red wine, that is easy enough to drink and has nothing to make me complain about it. Damned by feint praise? Yes, I am afraid so.
It is dry, reasonably fruity, has acidity that stops it being dull, 13% abv, and 'slightly medium' tannins. Sadly,the most interesting thing about it is the name and I'm not saying that to be unkind, it's just that at £10 a bottle it is up against lots of competition.
The grapes themselves come from the mountainous Elazig region of Eastern Turkey, where it is grown in the steep sided valleys in the upper reaches of the mighty Euphrates river. The estate comprises 160 ha and is farmed by the third generation of a family whose business was initiated in the 1940's by an immigrant from Bulgaria who started with only four hectares. So the winery is a success story and they now produce 35 different wines under three ranges. In time I will explore more of Sevilen's output, especially as they have some great names, but for now I will be lead wherever else the alphabet and, quite probably the wine buyer for my local M&S, takes me.
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