The full list of Wines from Urla
Two years ago, Armit Wines made the bold move of taking on the agency for a winery fromTurkey: Urla. At first glance,this may seem to be an unusual place to source wine, particularly for an Italian specialist such as ourselves. Yet when you delve deeper you discover that Turkey has a very long history of viticulture, dating back at least 6,000 years to the early civilisations of Asia Minor and, although it currently doesn't produce a huge amount of wine, it has an exceptional large production of grapes for eating and drying.
I was privileged to have the opportunity to go to the winery recently with some colleagues and customers and we were incredibly impressed with not only the beauty of the region, but the exceptional quality of the wine, and the positive and forward-thinking approach by the winery.
The part of Turkey where Urla is situated is on the western side of the country on the Aegean, closely located to the Greek island of Samos and Turkey's third largest city, Izmir. The climate is favourable for Mediterranean varieties and there are some high altitude vineyards, some over 1,000 meters, where white grapes can comfortably grow.
In common with many other of the world's great vineyards, the soils are rich in limestone and low in fertility and there is a visionary artisan at the helm, in this case Can Ortabas, whose inspiration for the creation of the project was his discovery of ancient terraced vineyards in his palm plantation and subsequent discovery and excavation of ancient amphorae for vinification.
Can's research lead him to discover that the region of Urla was at one point producing 72 million litres of wine, more than the rest of Turkey combined.
Urla's first vintage was 2008, and made in their state-of-the-art winery, built on three levels so that the vats sit below the crushers negating the need for pumping. Cold rooms keep the grapes fresh before they are crushed and destemed.
The vat room has an impressive bank of Italian made stainless steel, temperature controlled vats, and the cellar has the finest French oak from Seguin Moreau. Literally, no expense spared to craft the best wine possible.
The wines here are a blend of international and local varieties. There is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah to sit alongside Bogazkere (pronounced boh-AHZ-ker-eh) and a variety which has been revived by this winery, Urla Karasi.
This is also one of the few places outside of Sicily where you can find Nero d'Avola. We urge you to try these fantastic wines.
The full list of Wines from Urla
