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JR's notes:

Interest in Bulgaria was rife in 199 as the state ownership of land and wineries seemed about come to an end (in fact it took a little longer but has now been accomplished). WINE magazine published this article in June, 1999 (for more details of the tasting mentioned in the text, see GOING FOR ROSETTES - June, 1999). The WINE magazine website is at www.wilmington.co.uk

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BULGARIAN WINE -

READY FOR THE NEXT STEPPE

Bulgaria burst on to the international wine scene in the mid-1980s to the astonishment of the wine establishment. Since then, the country has made rapid strides but what, asks JOHN RADFORD, comes next?

An open mind is a two-edged sword. UK wine-drinkers have earned themselves an enviable reputation for a willingness to try anything once: Riesling from Riverina, Tempranillo from Tacama, Merlot from Monterrei or Pinot from Palermo. If it meets the standard and represents value for money, then they'll keep coming back for more. It worked for California and Australia in the late 1970s and it worked with a vengeance for the new wines from Bulgaria when they hit the shelves at about £1.99 a bottle, about fifteen years ago.

The other side of the blade, of course, is that wines can sometimes get left behind in the thirst for something new. California and Australia entered the market with fairly simple varietal wines at modest prices produced under rigorous quality control. They then pressed home their advantage with an increasing range expanding across the price spectrum, continually enticing the wine-drinker with further delights. New Zealand and Chile followed suit and, latterly, Argentina and - particularly - South Africa have done the same.

Bulgaria was an early success, with lovely, blackcurranty Cabernet-Sauvignons and soft, buttery Merlots at silly prices just at a time when the New World was starting to be taken seriously (i.e. prices were on the rise). Indeed, from 1984 to 1996, give or take the odd political hiccup (the collapse of Communism in 1989) and economic blip (the worst western recession in history, 1991-4) Bulgarian wines grew along the wine-merchants' shelves like the tendrils of a wild vine. Exports in 1996 were twelve times those of 1984 and, in a dozen years, Bulgarian wine had established itself as the paragon of the price-point - £2.99, that is. This was when the New World had weighed in with new, different, and more expensive wines to tempt the palate of the drinker and to raise the profile of their wines... So where were the Bulgarians now?

Before we examine the new-wave wines from Bulgaria let's see what's happened since 1996. The market peaked and then dipped, and the reasons, although manifold, can be boiled down to land reforms and the new market economy. The Bulgarian government is doing its best to return land to the people who owned it before the Communist takeover in 1948 but many records have been lost and, in some cases it's been virtually impossible to establish who owns what. In addition, under Communism there was no legal mechanism for the sale and ownership of land and, in any case, state-owned wineries had no money for investment even had there been vineyard land to buy. The move towards privatisation has been slow and painful but it seems likely that, by the end of 1999, the land-reforms will have been finalised and, indeed, in the spring of 1999 only one winery - Sliven - remains state-owned.

What this has meant in the meantime is that this beautiful country, which could and can be the breadbasket, vineyard and horticulturist of south-eastern Europe, has seen prime land go uncultivated while the wineries have been shouting for quality grape. In some regions, grape has been in such short supply at vintage-time that wineries have been forced in desperation to accept anything that the growers bring in. This is acceptable if you're still aiming for the £2.99 price-point but what the wineries want in 1999/2000 is guaranteed supplies of the best-quality grape to ensure that they can turn out wines of premium quality on a regular basis, with the exemplary quality control which did so much to get them into the market in the first place.

If land-reforms really are accomplished this year, then we should start to see an upsurge in 'new-wave' single-vineyard and fine wines from Bulgaria at some time after the 2004 vintage, with the prospect of some spectacular results from mature vineyards from, say, 2010 onwards. However, the process has already started. Those wineries which are lucky enough to have sufficient quality grape (or tough enough to bite the bullet and vinify small parcels of grape separately from the mainstream) are already turning out wines of markedly higher quality, and the task which many of the wineries have set themselves in the short-to-medium term is to break through the £2.99 barrier and convince the wine-buying public that Bulgaria can and does produce fine wines which are worthy to be in the '£4-plus' price-bracket.

The Bulgarian Wine Guild (which looks after the interests of all Bulgarian wine producers) held its largest-ever tasting in London in March, 1999 with more than 150 wines from fifteen wineries. Most of these are represented (or, indeed, owned by) one or other of the two major groups - Domaine Boyar and The Bulgarian Vintners' Company (BVC). Both of these have launched new premium ranges of wines - from different wineries under a blanket brand-name - which were shown at the tasting, Those from Domaine Boyar are called 'Premium Oak', 'Premium Cuvée' and 'Premium Reserve' (£3.99 to £4.99); BVC has two premium ranges, called 'Muzika' (unoaked - around £5) and 'Azbuka' (oaked - over £5).

But before we talk about individual wines, perhaps we should recap on the grape situation. There's a popular supposition that Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay et al came in with the New World winemakers in 1978. This is not the case. So-called 'classic' grape varieties have been cultivated in Bulgaria since its release from the Ottoman empire in 1878, and quite possibly before even then. There are, in addition, native varieties such as the (white) Dimiat and Misket and the (red) Mavrud, Gamza, Pamid and Melnik (after the town of the same name), and the Russian white variety Rikat (which the Russians call Rkatsiteli).

So, back to the tasting. There was an interesting gamut of styles from young, unvatted reds with bags of fruit to older red wines with toasty American oak flavours, and some fairly laid-back barrel-fermented whites. Many of them worked very well indeed:

Top of my tasting list came the 1996 Cabernet-Sauvignon Special from the Rousse winery (£4.99 per half-litre=£7.49 per bottle) which showed impressive class - delicacy, fruit, balance and length in the right proportions. Their Merlot is more expensive (£5.99 per half litre=£8.99 per bottle) and offered a splendid ripe style. The Domaine Boyar Shumen winery got my best collection of marks for the Premium Cuvée Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon (good tannins, excellent fruit, nice structure - £4.79). Equally good were their Premium Oak Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon: beautifully-made wines with great power and positively lipsmacking fruit on the Cabernet (£4.99 variously at Sainsbury's, Fuller's, Batley's, Europa, Oddbins, Winerite). The only other wine at this level was another white from the Rousse winery: Chardonnay Special (£4.99 per half-litre=£7.49 per bottle) which had enormous rich, ripe Chardonnay style even if the vintage on o ffer (1996) wasn't showing a lot of length. Probably one to drink - and look out for the next vintage.

White wines from the Targovishte winery also showed well: the slightly tautological Boyar Sauvignon Blanc Fumée from the 1998 and 1997 vintages (£4.29 per half-litre=£6.43 per bottle) had a beguiling New-World-style up-front fruit with good ripeness and depth but not a lot of length. In the same league were the Domaine Boyar wines from Shumen: an excellent barrel-fermented Chardonnay which had lovely delicate structure and spicy hints of oak - the 1998 was better than the 1997 (£4.29 per half-litre=£6.43 per bottle); Premium Cuvée Sauvignon Blanc (light gooseberry nose, soft, warm, ripe - £4.79); and a delicious, ripe, varietal Premium Oak Chardonnay (£4.99 - Fuller's Waitrose, Batley's, Europa, Unwins, Winerite, Wines of Westhorpe).

Domaine Boyar also showed well in red wines from the Iambol winery: Premium Oak Cabernet-Sauvignon and Merlot had a more old-fashioned style but excellent fruit, tannin and structure. The Haskovo winery's single-estate wines were dominated by Azbuka Merlot from Stambolovo - good, rich, plenty of fruit and a hint of oak: delicious (£5.99-£6.49 Safeway), Azbuka Merlot Sakar - big, full-fruit, nice balance, good tannin, plenty of life (£5.99-£6.49), and Stambolovo Merlot Special Reserve - some tannin, some fruit: good modern style (£4.99).

But what happened to the native varieties? Well, they were there all right, but still down in the £3-ish price bracket, almost as if the winemakers felt that they weren't worthy of the kid-glove treatment accorded to the 'classic' grapes. There were even those tasters who muttered darkly about 'internationalisation' of the wine styles and a lack of national character.

It would have been nice to see some 'premium' wines made from uniquely Bulgarian varieties but, considering how far Bulgarian winemaking has come in less than twenty years - and how recent the wine renascence has been - it would be churlish to complain that there are not enough fine wines coming out of the country. Once land-reform is completed and new vineyards come to maturity, we may see great developments here. In the meantime, Bulgaria's bid for the high-ground is on the march and, if they have chosen to put classic varieties in the vanguard, who can blame them? At the price, and for the quality, the new premium wines represent excellent value for money.

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