An Introduction to Bulgarian Wine
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This past summer, I took a trip I’ve been wanting to make for a few years now: Sofia. Bulgaria may not be on the top of everyone’s travel wish list (although it should be, it’s beautiful!) but it’s been on mine for a while now. Why? Wine, naturally! I’ve heard great things about Bulgarian wine and two years ago, Shoyu Sugar brought back an amazing Riesling pét-nat that cemented my desire to explore the country’s wine scene.
As I’ve only been to Bulgaria once before and wanted to do at least one non wine activity. In the end, I settled on a day trip to Boyana Church and Rila Monastery which was amazing! We had a great guide (I ended up on an Italian language tour but that’s a different story). Boyana Church was beautiful but Rila Monastery? Wo-ow. Even the hour + drive to and from through the Bulgarian countryside was beautiful. If you’re going to be in Sofia for more than a couple days, I highly recommend doing this!
And while I made the day trip a priority, I won’t lie, I actually started with the wine!
Bulgarian Wine: a quick intro
Prior to my trip, I knew a few basics about Bulgarian wine. Enough to know that while, like Turkey, Bulgaria uses quite a few international grapes, they have their native grapes as well. Unlike us, however, Bulgaria has its act together enough to have some approved wine regions. That being the extent of my knowledge, I made sure my very first activity after arriving was to head to Coupage Wine and Cheese Shop to do a guided tasting of local wines with someone who knows a lot more than I do!
And since I did mention that this would be a quick intro (there will certainly be more to come) let me just run you through a couple Bulgarian grapes:
- Reds: Mavrud, Melnik 55 (Shiroka Melnishka Loza x Valdiguié), Melnik 1300/Mlnik Jubilee (Shiroka Melnishka Loza x Saperavi), Pamid
- Whites: Dimiat/Dimyat, Gergana, Sandaski Misket (Shiroka Melnishka Loza x Tamjanka), Varenski Misket (Dimiat x Riesling)
According to Caroline Gilby MW’s The Wines of Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova (2018), Bulgaria has 52 PDOs, and two PGIs (Danube Plain and Thracian Lowlands). Fascinatingly, very few of the PDOs get used! In fact, only five or six apparently ever really appear on wine labels. She speculates that the reason most of these PDOs go unused is because people prefer to use Bulgaria’s old wine region designations, rather than the EU-compliant regulations which were decided for them during the accession process:
- Danube Plain / Northern viticultural region: bordered by the Danube to the north and the Balkan Mountains to the south and west. Soils are chalky/limestone to fertile black, humus-rich with loess along the river
- Black Sea / Eastern viticultural region: bordered by Romania to the north and Turkey to the south. Strong Black Sea influences creating lower summer temperatures. This is only region dominated by white grape varieties
- Thracian Plain / Southern viticultural region: aka the “Valley of the Roses” where Bulgaria grows its famous roses (Bulgaria grows 85% of the world’s roses!!) bordered by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Rhodope Mountains to the west and southwest, and the Strandzha Mountains to the east. Continental climate with limestone and alluvial soils
- Struma and Mesta Valleys / Southwestern viticultural area: temperate Mediterranean valleys along the Struma and Mesta rivers. The valleys open into the Aegean creating long, warm growing seasons and mild winters
Now let’s jump into some of the wines I brought home!
Staro Oryahovo Winery White Story, 2023
Staro Oryahovo Winery is a small, family winery just south of Varna. They started planting in 2010 and in 2013 vinified their first wines, all of which are small production. The White Story is 100% Varenski Misket (a cross of local Dimiat and Riesling) PGI Danube Plain. Grapes for this grow at 130-160 meters elevation in alkaline gray forest soils rich in clay, calcium and other minerals
The wine poured a pale lemon-lime with platinum highlights. Highly aromatic…one of the things I learned about Bulgarian grapes is that they like to play with crosses. Many of the resulting white varieties, regardless of whether or not one of the parents itself was from the Muscat family, gets named something-or-other Misket. And sure, Riesling is aromatic, but this Varenski Misket had a lot of the hallmarks of the traditional Muscat family. An explosion of stone fruit, melon, and candied lemon decorated with white flower petals. Medium-bodied with 12% alcohol, but I would have like a little more acidity, it felt a bit flat. On the flavor-side though, the palate gave everything the nose promised along with a hint of minerality and a pleasant citrus-pity bitterness on the finish. 
Zenis Trakia Tamianka, 2023
Zenik Trakia does not seem to have an online presence and, while I wasn’t in love with the Tamianka wines I’d tried, Coupage assured me that this was one of Bulgaria’s best examples of it. So, I gave it a shot. Plus, I wanted to see how wine from Bulgaria’s Thracian Valley stacked up against Turkish Thracian wine! Which is really apples to oranges since no one in our Thrace really makes aromatic white wine (aside from the ever present Sauvignon Blanc), let alone Tamianka.
Brilliant lemon in the glass, there was no mistaking that Tamianka is what the rest of us know a little better as Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains. AND entirely appropriate that the wine comes from the Thracian Valley where Bulgaria’s famous roses grow! Roses, roses, roses on the nose! along with tropical fruits and bergamot. Medium-bodied, dry but I believe I detected a hint of residual sugar. Heavily perfumed palate, 13% alcohol, with low acidity edging towards flabby.
All I do know about this winery, is that they do major small production. This was bottle 366 out of only 400.
Vidinska Gamza Traditions Gamza, 2018
This one seems a little repetitive but, as I understand it, the winery is called Vidinska Gamza and it just so happens to produce wine from the grape Gamza, aka, Kadarka. Vidinska Gamza is a small, family winery, located in the Novo Selo village on the Danube Plain. The Gamza (the grapes that is) come from own-rooted old vines. Maceration took place over 30 days then after fermentation aged for two years in old French oak barrels.
Pale, clear ruby with perfumed aromas of poppy, rhubarb, and raspberry with delicate threads of woody herbs and earth. Silky with ripe, well-integrated tannins and nice acidity. An explosion of raspberry and black cherry briefly competed with a medicinal herbal character before the two factions decided to get along and meld. At room temperature I found this a little cloying, drinking almost like a cordial. It drank much better chilled.
I look forward to my continued Bulgarian wine adventures!