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JR's notes:

I was lucky enough to visit Bulgaria for the first time in the autumn of 1998, and the following spring NAZDRAVE asked me to write about the trip, and also include tasting notes from the spring tasting at the Bulgarian Embassy. The article appeared in NAZDRAVE in June, 1999 (for the end of the limerick see BULGARIANS IN LIMERICK - July, 1997). Although the magazine is not live on the internet it's mentioned on the site of the Bulgarian Wine Guild at www.bulgarianwine.com

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THE LAND OF WINE AND ROSES -

GOING FOR ROSETTES

The Bulgarian wine industry came from nowhere in the 1980s to dominate the 'everyday' supermarket sector... So where does it go next? John Radford takes a look.

In Plovdiv, you can eat dinner in a Roman Emperor's bathroom. The old town, indeed, is a beguiling maze of cobbled streets with idiosyncratic houses whose upper storeys overhang and almost meet in the middle, where a 7,000-seat amphitheatre rang to the sound of chariot races before the fall of Troy, and where you'll find Bulgaria's leading œnology school. Most of the new-wave winemakers throughout the country will have studied here and it's an education that has, if you'll forgive the pun, borne considerable fruit...

...Which is more, alas, than you can say for the vineyards. Land reform has been slow and difficult, and prime sites have gone unclaimed and uncultivated for as much as a decade. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's wineries have fizzed with frustration at the poor quality of grape they've been offered at harvest time. However, you can't make wine without grapes and that's the business they're in.

Imagine, then, just how careful and how meticulous the selection has had to be - and how small the quantities available - of premium wines. Does the winemaker use those few precious tanks of top-class must to beef up a much larger consignment? Or take the risk and mature and bottle them separately, in the hope that the customers will pay the price and - most importantly of all - come back for more?

However, the logjam seems to be shifting. Investment has been very positive (only one winery remained in state hands in the spring of 1999) and land is being made available for sale. Of course, it'll need clearing and planting and then three years for the vines to come to maturity, but at least the game is, at long last, afoot. There's a new spirit of optimism in the business and more wineries have been encouraged to put some of their limited supplies of premium wine on sale, ready for the day when they can expand into a full range at the quality end of the market.

At the major London tasting in March, 1999 some of these wines were already on display. The Bulgarian Vintners' Company (BVC) has launched two new ranges in stylish presentations. One is called Muzika, illustrated with traditional musical instruments and claims to represent true regional styles of fruit; the other is called Azbuka, which is the Cyrillic equivalent of 'ABC...', and these are aged in oak, both American and Bulgarian. Prices range from £4.99 to £6.99.

Domaine Boyar has three new ranges - Premium Cuvée for unoaked wines in the 'New World' style; Premium Reserve for lightly-oaked wines, including some native Bulgarian grapes along with the Cabernet and Merlot; and Premium Oak with 6-9 months in American oak showing different regional styles as well some 'new-wave' winemaking. Prices range from £3.99 to £4.99.

The premium wines themselves showed very well although, inevitably, the best of them tend to be at the higher end of the price-range, with the Rousse winery's Cabernet-Sauvignon Special 1966 (£4.00 per half litre - equivalent to £7.49 a bottle) my joint wine-of-the-tasting (for tasting notes, see below).

If this is the kind of quality we have to look forward to once the new lands are in production, then the Bulgarian wine industry has an appropriately rosy future.

And did I mention the young stripper from Svischtov/who began just by taking her shift off/Then she did something lewd/With...

No, I probably didn't.

Tasting notes from the Bulagrian Premium tasing at the Bulgarian Embassy, Spring 1999:

Premium Oak Merlot 1997 (Domaine Boyar Shumen)

Sainsbury's, Batleys, Europa, Winerite - £4.99

Good, powerful wine with a laid-back style displaying rich fruit with good old-fashioned oaky varietal character. Excellent structure, with enough soft tannins to balance the fruit.

Premium Oak Chardonnay 1997 (Domaine Boyar Shumen)

Fullers, Waitrose, Batleys Europa, Unwins, Winerite, Wines of Westhorpe - £4.99

Lovely, ripe, rich varietal style with warm, spicy, oaky 'notes' and an excellent length. Beautifully made.

Musika Sakar Merlot 1995 (Haskovo)

Seeking Importer; to retail at approx. £4.99

Another big, powerful example with plenty of fruit up-front and the right balance of tannins and acidity - to drink with great pleasure now but there's plenty of life left in it for keeping.

Azbuka Stambolovo Merlot 1996 (Haskovo)

Safeway - £5.99 - £6.49

Lovely rich, ripe fruit - a lot of extraction but with that warm, toasty-oak, spicy Merlot background flavour. Another keeper - if you have the will-power.

Azbuka Shivachevo Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 (Vini Sliven)

Seeking Importer; to retail at approx. £6.49

Young, vibrant tannins on the nose lead to plenty of blackcurrant fruit on the palate with the right balance of spicy oak background flavours. Excellent, long finish that bodes well for its future development.

Azbuka Svischtov Cabernet Sauvignon 1997

Seeking Importer; to retail at approx. £6.49

Lovely, delicate, subtle, fresh fruit up-front with a proper concentration of tannins, good structure, a hint of spice and elegant length. My joint favourite of the tasting: quite simply excellent.

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