Chianti with Pizza at Big Chef Bakırköy A Plus

18 March 2012 we took Okan our team mate out for lunch to celebrate his birthday. Well initially we were planning to take Okan to a Mexican Restaurant in Yeşilköy. One of the restaurants which Mehmet Yaşin in one of his TV program visited and which I felt like it was worth trying. When I called the restaurant for lunch and trying to make a reservation , and saw some pictures of the restaurant I felt like the place was more like a boutique restaurant for a romantic dinner. Than the Big Chef in Ataköy Plus Mall was decided finally.

It was a lunch with 11 of us including Ahmet Kara our super secret new hire :) After a quick discussion on what to drink we were divided into two groups one drinking a Turkish wine and others going for a more special selection. I remember myself looking in the menu for a long time to decide what to eat in between those discussions. Well the dishes all looked pretty, until I saw the waitress serving the next table nice thin dough pizza, than came my decision for a pepperoni pizza with an inevitable DOCG Chianti selection.

The wine is Melini Chianti Pian Del Masso %85 sangiovese grosso with %15 complementary varieties and it is mentioned that Merlot in particular is basing the complementary ones. The official presentation wine is as follows:

Chianti Pian del Masso owes its name to an imposing rock on one of the Melini farms. A “creamy” and “round” wine thanks to a larger proportion of Bordeaux grape varieties, especially Merlot, and thanks also to a particular and unique vinification, which provides for a partial use of the practice of the “governo all’uso toscano”: a slow and steady fermentation of part of the grapes from which is obtained a “rich” product, a percentage of which is then added to the finished wine.

The color of the wine accoring to me was bright dark pink. The odour definitely has cherry traces, still not good at selecting other florish ones though. The taste is light at the beginning and remains afterwards which made me like this wine. The tongue feeling was on the tip and edges. It is a young wine from year 2010 even it could be kept more I was not annoyed with the current experience. And finally, the pizza pepporoni really goes very well with any Chianti again as ussual...

Marques de Caceres 2009 Crianza

Marques de Caceres 2009 Crianza bought this wine for father, well you now what...? When ever we go to my father&mother for dinner there is always good food so their home is a really good place to bring the wines. We reunite all/partially the family like twice a month. So there is no other better place to keep those wines than their home.

So my adventure for tasting wine with good food restarted that night. I dive into the kitchen to see what was on the menu . Aysel (my mother) is a very special woman, she gives so much love to her grandchildren including our naughty boy Poyraz. According to her cooking is like an art which she really pays a lot of attention, and that's why sometimes we starve while waiting for her delicious foods.

My father went for a French Cabernet, well I stopped him and dive into the kitchen to see what was there for dinner. There was dolma (stuffed minced meat in different kinds of vegetables like special kind of pepper, dried tomato, marrow etc..) . And special spicy rice cooked ala Turkish style. In dolma there is also some rice, which made me think it was a good night to open a bottle of Marques de Caceres 2009 Crianza %85 Tempranillo and %15 Garnacha Tinto & Graciano.

You could hardly see that onion skin color on the beautiful rioja which made me think that it was opened a little bit early? But man the smell was fruitful, well I could definetly smell cherry. It has been a little while since I tasted the wine and could not actually remember the tongue feelings but what I remember it is that it was a really good combination with mainly rice based food. According to me this wine should have been opened 1-2 years later. But the general feeling was good...

As an amateur wine taster since 2002, I quit drinking on 2005. It took 7 years for me to decide start drinking again. My friends always asked me why I quit drinking alcohol, I usually answered them "I was too drunk to remember the reason". People who know me well, dont ask such questions as I may have always changed the pace in my life at some point....

Well I kept tasting smelling and spitting wine :) since then. Lets say I quit spitting now :) Coming soon with a Melini Chianti DOCG, A French APC and a Turkish wine tasted with different kinds of food...