In her column of 12 September 2018, titled “Being rather than doing”, Dalia Maya of the newspaper Şalom starts from the month of September: harvest month, and also the new year in the Jewish calendar, a time for taking stock and beginning again. Wine enters through the table she had been sitting at a week earlier in Tekirdağ: the fourth Thrace International Wine Competition, which I organise. The text below follows that part of the column.
I organise the competition with the support of the Süleymanpaşa municipality, and its purpose fits in one sentence: to make the wines of Thrace known worldwide. The column introduces me as “Turkey’s first certified sommelière”. 2018 was the fourth edition.
The jury that year had three members: Kenichi Ohashi, Master of Wine, Peter McCombie, Master of Wine, and Andreas Larsson, named the world’s best sommelier in 2007. The tasting is blind: the jury does not know whose wine it is tasting, but does know the grape variety. Wines are assessed on appearance, nose, palate and length. Separate sessions pick the best red, the best white and the best blend; the best wine of the year is then chosen from the highest scorers in each category.
Dalia Maya asked the jury about Turkey’s chances in wine export. Kenichi Ohashi, in Turkey for the first time, said he had tasted very fine wines, but pointed out that they came from grape varieties that are appreciated internationally and already made by strong brands: for Turkey to have a chance in the export market, it needs to make more wine from its own local varieties. The jury broadly agreed.
On the municipal side the competition rests on Ekrem Eşkinat, mayor of Süleymanpaşa. At the time of the column he was about to follow the wines to Chicago, to present them during a Turkish week. His pledge to support viticulture comes in his own phrase: “until Tekirdağ becomes Tekirbağ”, the town of vineyards.
The results of the year sit at the end of the column as a “note for the curious”. Best rosé: Sarafin Rosé 2017 (Doluca). Best red showing varietal character: Sarafin Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 (Doluca). Best red blend: Elegance 2013 (Barbare). In white, three wines scored the same and were named best together: Chateau Murou Semillon 2017 (Saranta), Terra Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay 2017 (Kayra) and Vintage Chardonnay 2016 (Kayra). That last one also took the best wine of the year award. Beyond the category winners, eleven more wines scored above 91 points and earned a gold medal.
The headline comes not from the competition but from September itself, and at the end the two meet. Going into the new year, Dalia Maya suggests aiming to “be” rather than to “do”, and builds the comparison out of wine: “Like a wine... To grow well. And, having grown well, to be good in good surroundings, in good encounters.” Said of wine, the sentence holds too.