This is what good wine from the Vasilaki grape tastes like

Vasilaki is a rare Turkish grape that only grows on the small island of Bozcaada in the Aegean Sea. Vasilaki produces fairly firm, soft wine with plenty of tropical fruit in the flavor.

The Turkish island of Bozcaada used to be Greek, and the name Vasilaki sounds distinctly Greek for good reason. But the handful of wines made from Vasilaki these days are genuinely Turkish.

Vasilaki is not an easy grape for the winemaker. It has relatively low acidity, so a good winemaker harvests a small portion of the Vasilaki grapes early, while they are not yet fully ripe and still have (more) acidity. This is later blended with the juice of fully ripe grapes. And there is another problem: Vasilaki wine can oxidize fairly quickly, which can be solved by letting the wines age on the lees for a long time.

If the winemaker sticks to this, Vasilaki wine can be well worth it. We have only tasted the Vasilaki from winery Corvus (according to the big wine books, the best made from this grape). It is a beautiful, full dry wine with plenty of tropical fruit on the nose and in the flavor.