You might think that wine producers struggle immensely to sell their products, right? Think again. As a place that serves wines from nearly all Turkish producers, WAYANA can tell you otherwise. Let me summarize briefly.
Since 2014, only one producer has ever come knocking on our door to promote their wines. And that producer was the largest in Turkey, while we were just starting out. Şamil Gence, then at Kavaklıdere Wines, noticed the potential in us and spent four hours tasting with us. Şamil has a greater claim on today’s WAYANA than he probably realizes. Kavaklıdere’s ability to maintain its position comes down to such key decisions.
At WAYANA (or BEPPE, our original pizza restaurant’s name), we have never hesitated to chase after wine producers. Yet, we remain puzzled by how weak their active marketing efforts are.
HOW WE MET AKBERG WINES
Organizing professional wine events in Turkey — the world’s 17th largest economy — is almost impossible. At one of the few recent events, I saw Akberg Wines present for the first time. The title caught my attention: Noirs de Blanc. At first glance, it seemed like a spelling error; then I thought, “If this big mistake exists…,” only to realize it was deliberate. Attending and completing the tasting, I was glad to see Akberg delivering on their promise.
The presentation told the story of their journey trying to make red wine from grapes typically used for white wine, and we had the chance to taste three resulting wines. I took their card and left mine, though no one called me. Eventually, we managed to contact their marketing managers, and since then our relationship has grown strong — yet the rule remains, we’re the ones reaching out to producers.
WHAT IS NOIRS DE BLANC?
There is no such wine style in the literature. Several producers have excitedly experimented with this concept at different times. One is Akberg, based in Izmir.
In white wine production, contact with grape skins is kept to a minimum. The skins play no role in fermentation (except for Orange and natural wines, which are outside our scope here), so white wine can never naturally take on a red color.
If you want to make red wine from white wine grapes, there’s only one path: adding color by using the dark skins of other grapes. In technical terms, this means applying a maceration process — almost never used in white wine — by incorporating the skins of different grapes.
WHAT DID AKBERG DO?
Akberg, known especially for their Büyükbağ series featured on the WAYANA menu, chose three white and three red wine grape varieties and paired them as follows:
- Cabernet Sauvignon – Narince
- Boğazkere – Emir
- Merlot – Narince
We tasted all three pairs at the event mentioned above, but over time, the Merlot-Narince pairing didn’t meet expectations and was not released. The other two wines are now on the WAYANA menu.
One crucial consideration for this special production is the simultaneous harvest of paired grapes. Wine grapes are time-sensitive and require rapid processing; differing harvest times endanger the chance of good results.
In the first pairing, Cabernet Sauvignon skins were lightly crushed to separate solids such as stems and seeds (called “cibre”). Narince grapes were pressed, and their juice added to the Cabernet skins, starting fermentation. Once the tannins, polyphenols, and aromas transferred from the Cabernet skins to the juice reached a sufficient level, the final pressing was done and the wine was aged in oak barrels.
The second pairing followed the same method with Boğazkere and Emir grapes: Boğazkere skins lightly crushed and solids removed; Emir grapes pressed, fermentation started; when expected components transferred sufficiently, final pressing and oak aging followed.
SIMILAR EXPERIMENTS AROUND THE WORLD
In 2007, Green Creek Winery in North Carolina, USA, made a red Chardonnay called “Chardonnay Rosso.” As it’s no longer on their website, it appears to have been a one-time experiment.
In 2009, GLM Winery in the northwestern USA near the Canadian border produced a similar wine under the name “Enrobed Wine,” inspired by the French term “La Robe” (the robe/dress of a wine).
GLM’s process involved completely separating dark grape juice from skins and processing it like a white wine (Blanc de Noirs), while leaving white grape juice on skins longer to enhance character. Then the white grape juice was placed over the dark skins and fermented like a red wine. The result was a unique hybrid combining characteristics of both white and red grapes.
Green Creek was the pioneer; GLM discovered their work later. Akberg entered this path unaware of their predecessors but discovered them later. All followed similar innovative paths but learning of each other took time.
HOW DO THE WINES TASTE?
Akberg’s two wines carry traces of this intriguing union. Boğazkere and Cabernet Sauvignon contribute not only color but also some of their strong tannins. The characteristic notes we expect from Emir and Narince white wines recede into the background. In other words, these wines present an intellectual compromise, a decision to coexist. As always, we know many wine lovers will enjoy these.
A FINAL WORD
Products with as long a history as wine often resist innovation. It seems as if a protective wall built over thousands of years keeps innovators at bay. But this perception is both misleading and dangerous. Survival depends on embracing change. Noirs de Blanc is such an endeavor: bold and risk-taking. If the result is not as expected, it opens new doors for alternative approaches.
As Nasrettin Hoca famously said when fermenting yeast in Lake Beyşehir: “What if it works?”
