Turkish Wine Selection: Sultaniye

In our month-by-month tasting plan, May is dedicated to what is probably one of the most misunderstood wine grapes: Sultaniye.

Meet Sultaniye

Turkey ranks 5th globally for grape production and is one of the world's leading producers of table grapes and raisins. The number one grape used in raisin production: Sultaniye, making it the most commonly grown grape in Turkey.

While its origin remains murky, Anatolia remains likely. It was, in any case, Turkey which popularized the grape in Europe and much of the western hemisphere, giving rise to its name from the sultan rulers of the Ottoman Empire.

Sultaniye goes by a number of names, including Sultana, specifically in reference to raisins, Kishmish in Afghanistan, Lady de Coverly in the UK, and in much of North America, Thomson Seedless. Still one of the most planted grapes in California, its introduction to the state is credited to viticulturalist William Thompson.

In the Vineyard

Sultaniye is a highly vigorous vine that requires careful pruning. It's a mid- to late-ripening grape that, despite its vigor, has some pretty specific growing condition preferences. It thrives in hot, dry Mediterranean climates in well-drained sandy or loamy soils. The high Denizli Plain in Turkey’s Inner Aegean provides just these conditions for Sultaniye.

The grapes are resistant to drought and sensitive to humidity, which can promote bunch rot. Similarly, it can easily fall prey to most fungal diseases. It grows in medium to large conical bunches that can be quite compact, exacerbating some of these bunch rot issues. Whether or not most people know what to call it, you’d probably recognize these medium-size grapes with their distinct golden-yellow color if you saw them at the grocery store.

Acre upon acre of modern trellised and mechanized Sultaniye vineyards are a common sight as one drives across the Denizli Plain. These are the commercial vineyards producing fresh grapes and grapes intended for raisin and molasses production. But, you don’t have to look too hard to find plots of old bush vines scattered around the region. These vines are prized by the few wineries brave enough to work with the grape for their natural low yields and ability to be farmed without irrigation.

In the Winery

What does bravery have to do with making wine from Sultaniye? A lot, as it turns out. If you tell someone you make wine with Thompson Seedless grapes, the reaction from many North Americans would be disbelief, bordering on horror. It’s just a table grape. You couldn’t possibly make quality wine with it.

Many people in Turkey have a similar reaction. Not because it’s known only as a table grape - it is, in fact, a vitis vinifera variety (the grape species used to make wine). But rather, because the country has long been flooded with cheap, poorly made wines from Sultaniye. When made with high-yield fruit and indifferent winemaking, Sultaniye wines are often insipid, off-dry affairs with little to recommend them.

José & Rob with Heraki's plastic fermentation eggs

However, thanks to producers like Paşaeli and Heraki, this grape is slowly finding its feet in the world of fine wines. Sourcing grapes from old vineyards gives producers like this higher-quality fruit, with concentrated flavor compounds. And when that high quality fruit enters the winery, these producers treat it with the with respect and careful attention they would any other fine wine grape.

When done well, Sultaniye wines range from easy and fruity to more tense and acidic (early harvesting helps with that). It takes well to barrel aging and can, yes, produce lovely late harvest or partially dried sweet wines.

Sultaniye Wines to Try

At the moment we have only one Sultaniye to offer, the Delta V from Heraki. The name comes from aerospace dynamics, where delta-v (Δν) is the total change in velocity required to perform a maneuver or shift a spacecraft's trajectory, a measure of the impulse needed to overcome the force of inertia. You might be wondering, how on earth did this wine come by such a name? Heraki founders Fulya and José say that the negative preconceptions of the sultaniye grape must be overcome, like the inertia of a rocket in space must be overcome, and their efforts to make and bring this wine to market as a fine wine, are just that:

the delta-v (Δν) of sultaniye, the necessary and powerful impulse that will shift those negative preconceptions and propel the grape into the world of serious wines.

And oh boy does it!

They craft this wine with grapes sourced from a single vineyard in the Çal area of Denizli. The 60+ year-old goblet vines are dry-farmed at an elevation of 2,789 ft above sea level in clay and limestone soils.

Grapes ferment slowly over 25 days in a combination of old French oak barrels and plastic fermentation eggs. Sixty per cent of the wine then ages for nine months in 300 liter, three to five-year-old French oak barrels before being bottled with limited filtration.

Heraki Delta V Sultaniye: Gentle yet inviting with old vine finesse. Ripe golden apple and tangy lemon form the core, accented by a delicate nutty character and creamy vanilla undertones. Oak maturation brings a rounded structure, balanced by vibrant acidity from its high-altitude origins. Long, clean, with delicate pistachio lingering on the palate.

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 blog which is dedicated largely to Turkish wine.