Urla Karasi

I came across this wine made from this obscure grape blended with the Sicilian grape Nero d'Avola at last year's Wine Fair. Urla Karasi (meaning the black grape of Urla) is an ancient grape from Urla in Izmir Province (Turkey). It is grown in bush vines there and it was originally thought that there are no pure breed vines. Later three old pure breed plants wer found and from these more vines were propagated. Apart from this, it is difficult to obtain more information about this grape (no listing on VIVC). As for this wine, it was a deep ruby, with a berry fruity nose, which followed through to the palate accompanied by spicy notes. There was ample acidity for structure and support.