Grape Guide
Kalecik Karasi
RedKalecik Karası is a Turkish red grape named for the Kalecik district northeast of Ankara, in central Anatolia. Once close to extinction, it was rescued by clonal selection in the 1970s and now makes soft, fragrant, cherry-scented reds, plus rosé and sparkling wine, meant mostly for early drinking.
Key characteristics
- Native to the Kalecik district on the Kızılırmak river, Ankara province
- Compact bunches of medium berries with thick skins
- Mid-season ripening, with harvest typically in mid to late September
- Vulnerable to botrytis bunch rot in damp seasons
- Best on slopes at roughly 600 to 900 m; fertile valley floors dilute quality
Typical flavors
Major regions
Kalecik (Ankara) · Denizli · Cappadocia (Nevşehir) · Thrace (Trakya) · Aegean (Manisa) · Konya
Also known as
Kalecik Karasi (without diacritics)
Kalecik Karası is the red grape most closely associated with Turkey's modern quality wine movement. The wines are typically ruby in colour, light to medium in body and moderate in alcohol, usually 12 to 14 percent, with gentle tannins and refreshing acidity. The aromatic range runs from sour cherry and raspberry to a sweeter, candied or cotton-candy register in simpler wines.
Its home is the steep terrain above the Kızılırmak river around Kalecik, in Ankara province, where altitude gives warm days and cool nights. The grape is made as a young, unoaked red more often than anything else, though some producers use oak to add vanilla and cocoa notes. In style it sits nearer to Gamay than to Pinot Noir, despite the frequent comparison with the latter. Rosé, blanc de noirs and traditional-method sparkling versions also exist.
The name means the black grape of Kalecik, and the variety is almost certainly native to that district of Ankara province in central Turkey, probably the vineyards along the Kızılırmak river. Stories that place it in Anatolian vineyards as far back as the Hittite era have no documentary or genetic support.
No parentage has been established by DNA analysis. The international variety catalogue lists Kalecik Karası as a synonym of the white-berried Hasandede, but ampelographic descriptions do not support that, and the two should be treated as separate until genetic work confirms otherwise. Several other Turkish varieties with Kara in their names, among them Papazkarası and Adakarası, are sometimes confused with it, and some local plantings sold under the name have proved to be something else.
Phylloxera reduced the variety to a few surviving vines in the 1960s, and neglect did the rest. Y. Sabit Ağaoğlu of Ankara University identified and propagated healthy material through clonal selection in the 1970s, working with the Kavaklıdere winery in Ankara. Kavaklıdere released a varietal Kalecik Karası at the end of the 1980s, and the grape then spread to other regions, including Cappadocia, Denizli and Thrace.
Kalecik Karası forms compact bunches of medium-sized, blue-black berries with thick skins. It ripens in mid-season, with harvest usually falling in mid to late September, and it is productive if left unchecked. Compact bunches and thick skins do not prevent botrytis bunch rot, to which the variety is susceptible, so crop thinning and open canopies matter in humid seasons. Quality depends strongly on site: the best fruit comes from sloping vineyards at about 600 to 900 m above sea level, where nights are cool, while fertile valley-floor plantings and high yields have produced thin, dilute wines. Soils around Kalecik are pebbly clay loams with marine fossil content. Published plantation figures vary widely between sources, so no single total can be given with confidence. Several selected clones are in circulation.
The standard expression is an unoaked, juicy red meant for the first few years after harvest. It shows sour cherry, raspberry and strawberry, medium body, soft tannins and bright acidity, and it is usually served slightly cool, around 16 to 18 degrees Celsius. Cheaper, higher-yielding versions can smell of candy or cotton candy and lack depth. A smaller group of producers ferments or matures part of the wine in oak, which adds vanilla and cocoa notes and a little more weight, though heavy oak overwhelms the variety's light structure. Dry rosé is a growing category, with lively acidity and strawberry fruit. Blanc de noirs, pressed off the skins, and traditional-method sparkling wines are made on a small scale, mostly by newer producers exploring indigenous grapes.
Where it grows
Kalecik (Ankara)
The historic centre, on slopes above the Kızılırmak river at roughly 600 to 900 m. Wines from here tend to be the lightest and most delicate, with a long, fresh finish. Vinkara and Kavaklıdere both work with grapes from this area.
Denizli
A high plateau in western Anatolia with a climate similar enough to Kalecik that the variety has been planted there on a significant scale. Pamukkale is a long-established name in the province.
Cappadocia (Nevşehir)
Volcanic-tuff landscapes at altitude, where Kocabağ, Turasan and Kavaklıdere's Côtes d'Avanos facility, opened in 2003, make Kalecik Karası. Wines are often described as fuller and more tannic than those of Ankara.
Thrace (Trakya)
A smaller, cooler-climate planting in the northwest, where Vino Dessera in Kırklareli has produced a still blanc de noirs.
Aegean and Konya
Minor plantings around Manisa and in Konya on the central plateau, mostly used for easy-drinking reds and rosés.