Pairing Turkish Wine & Food, Step One: Don't Panic!
- Andrea Lemieux
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Pairing food with wine is intimidating enough when you know the grapes. Turkish wines add another layer of mystery. Narince, Papazkarası, Osmanca, Karasakız: fascinating varieties that make excellent wines, but if the names are completely new to you, where do you even start with food pairing?
Let’s look at some wine and food pairing basics to get you started, then delve into a few Turkish specifics.
Wine and Food Pairing Basics
Most of us have heard at least once that you pair white wine with chicken and fish and red wine with red meat. You probably won’t go super wrong with that route…but you will certainly miss out on some interesting pairings. White wine with steak, for example? Because yes. Red wine with a salad? For sure.
The real pairing tricks come down to weight and intensity.
Weight
Not literally how much does something weigh, but how ‘heavy’ does it feel in your mouth? To illustrate this better, think about milk. Skim or 1% milk feels like nothing more than water on the tongue. Whereas whole milk fills the whole mouth and lingers even after you swallow. Then there’s cream which not only coats your mouth and tongue but, yes, feels “heavy.”
How does this relate to wine? Imagine you’re eating something at the lighter end of the scale, salad, for example. A barrel-aged, full-bodied, tannic red wine is going to drown out any flavor in the food. But a crisp, light-bodied white wine or a light to medium-bodied red wine with (little to) no barrel aging or tannins, those fall on the same “weight” spectrum as the salad.
Take that same crisp white wine. You’re not going to taste it if you drink that with a steak. That’s where you want that heavier red wine. OR, now come with me on this, a barrel-aged, full-bodied white wine. Especially if it’s got some age.
Someone once told me that if you would squeeze a lemon on something, pair it with lighter white wines, roses, and light to medium-bodied red wines with no oak. If you would put butter on it, then barrel-aged red or white wines. Not a bad rule of thumb.
Then there are amber wines, which is a whole different discussion, but they go well with a surprisingly large range of food.
Intensity
Pair foods that have a lot of big "in your face" flavors with wines of similarly grandiose character, and vice versa.
Let’s go back to that salad. If your salad is iceberg lettuce, maybe a couple tomatoes and cucumbers, and a dash of vinaigrette, an intensely aromatic wine is going to completely drown out any of the salad’s more delicate flavors.
But, if you make a salad with baby spinach and fresh basil-bonus if you have a fancy basil like lemon or lime basil (they exist), add slices of fresh fruits like peaches, apricots, and loquats, toasted almonds, and burrata, dress it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar glaze and don’t forget the salt and pepper! Well, then you a) have the recipe for my favorite summer salad and b) can pull the cork on an aromatic white wine.
But is it really possible to pair a salad with a red wine? Sure! Start with strongly flavored greens like kale or something peppery like arugula as your base. Next, pile on roasted or garlic butter sauteed mushrooms or any other roasted vegetables. Toss in a more tannic nut like walnuts and pecans or toasted pumpkin seeds. Finish it with seasoning and olive oil and try something different like Austria’s “black gold” pumpkin seed oil.
With red wine, you could also play with the same base but then try a savory-sweet mix of meat and dried fruit like cherries, figs, or dates with aged hard cheese and aged balsamic vinegar.
These types of salads are FULL of flavor intensity and pair beautifully with lighter and medium-bodied red wines. Don’t even be afraid to chill that red wine a little.
Pairing Turkish Wine with Turkish Food
Now that we’ve covered some basic tricks, let’s dive into Turkish wine and food pairings.
Narince
Narince is medium-to-full-bodied with enough acidity to carry the wine’s weight and stand up to rich foods. Its core fruit flavors invite pairing options that explore fresh and cooked fruit’s savory side. One particularly great pairing is one of Turkey’s underrated kebabs, the yeni dünya kebab.
Made by interspersing spiced meatballs with seasonal loquats, the dish is rich and savory with a hint of sweetness. Can’t find loquats? No problem. Apricots work well with this dish too.
Osmanca
Osmanca is on the lighter-bodied side and, while the wine offers a whole world of flavors like citrus fruits, fennel, basil, and green tea, they are delicate flavors, easily overwhelmed. However, Osmanca wines have great acidity that can cut through oily foods like many of Turkey’s favorite mezes. Try this with the ubiquitous yaprak sarma, stuffed grape leaves.
These require patience and time to make. If you don’t have either of those, you can often find premade stuffed grape leaves in Mediterranean delis and even places like Trader Joe’s.
Barburi
Hailing from one of the main gastronomic centers of Turkey, Hatay, Barburi unsurprisingly goes with just about everything. This medium-bodied, fruity wine is one of the country’s food-friendliest grapes. Try it with one of the kebabs from Hatay: tepsi kepbab.
Boğazkere
Big, bold, full-bodied Boğazkere usually begs for meat. But instead of kebab, pair this with içli köfte. These fried (or baked) balls of happiness have a pounded bulgur shell hiding mince mixed with spices and pine nuts or walnuts. Boğazkere's strong tannins and high acidity cut through the oil and marry with the richness of the filling.
These aren’t any easier to make than the yaprak sarma, but similarly, içli köfte (or their Lebanese cousins kibbeh) are often findable in Mediterranean markets.
Turkish Grapes with Not Turkish Food
Just because the grapes are Turkish, doesn’t mean you always have to pair the wine with Turkish food! Do you always pair French wine with French food? No! Or if you do, you’re missing out on one of the greatest food-wine pairings of all times in Champagne with fries and fried chicken.
Sultaniye
Sultaniye is aromatic and needs similarly intensely flavored foods. Try it with Indian food (not spicy though), cream sauces, white pizza, and prosciutto wrapped asparagus.
Gök
Vibrant Gök grown so close to the sea begs for seafood and light fish, but would also pair well with lemon pasta and olive or caper-heavy dishes to match the grape’s briny character.
Karasakız
With its bold, peppery profile, Karasakız can stand up to meat dressed in pepper sauces. But, it’s also delicate enough that it won’t overwhelm things like grilled salmon or savory tart tatins.
Papazkarası
Papazkarası can be a bit of a trickster due to the grape’s various clones that can make wines paler-colored and medium-bodied or deeply pigmented and full-bodied. Look at the alcohol level before you start planning your dinner. For lower alcohol Papazkarası, try things like seared oyster mushrooms, French onion soup, and roast duck. For the heftier version, lean into meats like roast venison or braised oxtail.
Have Fun with It
Sometimes the best food and wine pairings have nothing to do with “rules” but are something that you accidentally stumble across. At the end of the day, it’s all about how flavors interact. But, doesn’t that bring us back to the question of pairing unfamiliar grapes? Sort of yes, sort of no.
Look at it as an invitation to taste widely, wines and foods! You can also always “cheat” and read wine tasting notes to get an idea about how the wine tastes and with what it might pair. We’re also always here for advice and recommendations.
Don’t let lack of familiarity with a grape stop you from wine and food pairing experimentation. If your pairing works out, that’s great, you have a fantastic meal. If it doesn’t…then what? The world ends? No. No one’s going to point at you and laugh that you thought you could pair Barburi with SPAM musubis or Gök with jalapeño poppers and it didn’t work out.
Just have fun with it. Afiyet Olsun!
As always, you can enjoy and purchase this wine and many more at the Fine Turkish Wine Bottle Shop + Tasting Room, located in Houston's Montrose District at 1909 Dunlavy Street.
Andrea Lemieux is an international wine expert with particular expertise in Turkish Wine. She is the author of The Essential Guide to Turkish Wine, the world's only comprehensive English language book on Turkish wine. She is also the author of The Quick and Dirty Guide to Greek Wine and the founder of The Quirky Cork website which is dedicated largely to Turkish wine.
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