In-Depth: Eastern Europe - Bulgarian Wine

Cathedral in Varna

I was not a very good caterer. It wasn’t so much serving food or working behind the bar that I failed at (I can set up a beautiful bar), it was just the refined and robot-like dignity I was forced to maintain while working. Our head manager was the most thankless perfectionist, went by the book and a few of our supervisors were just plain mean – like ‘power-trip mean’.

So one night I cracked. I was bartending for a small group of accountants and, at six-thirty twenty people showed up. They nibbled, they drank, they kibitzed and around quarter after seven, most had left. A handful of guys stayed behind. Settling into the nice plush chairs, they wanted to drink, shoot the breeze. I stood behind the bar trying to maintain my rigid pose but they only yelled at me, ‘Hey relax, buddy! Or, ‘Don’t stand like that, you remind me of my wife!’ One of them with what I thought was a Russian accent invited me to have a drink.

I thought, what the hell, why not?

I poured us both some wine, ate some veggies off the table and we talked for a half hour. Eventually I was caught and (I suspect) ratted out by my supervisor. Not surprisingly, my hours were pared down after that episode.

I learned the man was from Bulgaria and he told me about the wine of his country.

BULGARIAN WINE

From what this man shared and what I’ve read, Bulgaria was once the ‘wine lake’ for the Soviet Union. As we saw with Romania and Slovenia, wine has been made in the region for thousands of years. But when Communism was foisted on the people, the country was intentionally planted with a massive amount of international grape varieties, all there for the sole purpose of supplying Mother Russia.

By 1966, the country’s output placed them as the sixth largest wine importer in the world. During the seventies, British bargain-hunters who were too cheap to splurge for a left-bank Bordeaux, bought the cut-rate claret-like Cabernets of Bulgaria. The country peaked in exports before the fall of Communism in the 1980s. The first signs of let-up arrived with Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign.

During the 1990s, figures suggest yields had greatly fallen below the French average. It was at this time that many of the state-owned wineries were privatized. International investors rushed in to take advantage, with foreign support arriving from as far away as Japan and the U.S. Even Russia, newly ‘democratic’ took part.

BULGARIAN WINE QUALITY

Before things took a bit of turn for the worse, Bulgaria initiated the Wine Act of 1978. This decree classified wine into several categories: Standard wines for your basic light wines, Special Wine which included sparkling, liqueur and fruit wines, High Quality wines without Geographical Origin (similar to our ‘Cellared in Canada’ wines except the grapes are actually grown in the country), High quality wines with Declared Geographical Origin (DGO), which are wines grown in one of the five regions and Controliran – which is higher than DGO and similar to France’s Appellation Contrôlée. This assures customer quality but if it says Reserve, the oak flavor will most likely come from the oak chips instead of the time spent in a large wooden vat (which imparts hardly any flavor).

BULGARIAN GRAPE VARIETIES

My new Bulgarian friend told me about Bulgarian Cabernet. “The freshest and fruitiest. It is absolutely delicious. One of the best reasons to visit my country. It is so good and reasonably priced.”

Besides the four main international varieties - Merlot, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and of course the Cabernet (the country is believed to have more Cab vineyards than California) – Bulgaria also offers up eastern European varieties.
Mavrud grape bunches

MAVRUD – is a fine, late-ripening grape used to produce spicy reds.

MELNIK – named after a small town in the Struma Valley, this variety is grown closer to the Greek border, producing powerfully scented wines of beautiful, sometimes sweet flavor.

PAMID – a common grape, pale and quaffable.

GAMZA – a grape you’ll find in Hungary called Kadara, it is also planted throughout Bulgaria

Whites include: a Georgian, Rkatsileli, Dimiat (Serbia’s everyday Smederevka), Red Misket (not red but a crossing of Riesling and Dimiat) and some other foreign grapes, including Muscat Ottonel which is very popular and Aligoté, the lesser-beloved grape of Burgundy widely planted in Eastern Europe.

BULGARIAN WINE REGIONS

Bulgaria isn’t a big country. (“You can drive it in a day.”) From Serbia to the Black Sea, it’s only 450 km and from northern Greece to southern Romania (at its widest), just about 300 km.

The summers are hot, temperatures can reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius while winters can be quite cold with -25 degrees at its lowest. The Black Sea does offer a moderating effect in the east but much of the country experiences a continental climate.

There are five distinct wine regions:

The DANUBIAN PLAIN, where most of the famous regional wines are produced in the north-northwest of the country. (Look out for wines from Sukhindol or Subhindol)

In the east, the BLACK SEA takes up the entire coastline. International varieties like Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer are grown here and do extremely well due to the maritime influence. Reds are planted further inland on the mountain slopes around Khan Krum and Novi Pazar.

The southern portion of the country is divided between the EAST and WEST THRACIAN LOWLANDS, with the West Thracian Valley putting out the most wine. Here you can find higher-quality Mavrud from Assenovgrad.

The STRUMA VALLEY (or South West) is considerably smaller than its neighbors as the vineyards ‘snug up’ against the Greek border. This is where you’ll find the Melnik wines I mentioned, the most “original wines” according to Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson in their World Atlas of Wine. Unfortunately, the originality of these wines is fast becoming “a rare commodity” in Bulgaria according to the Atlas.

THE KEY TO BULGARIA

Unlike France, Germany, Spain and Italy where the vineyards of the Côte du Beaune, the Mosel, Rioja and Tuscany take precedence on a wine’s label, Bulgaria is all about the winery. What happens in the vineyard, stays in the vineyard and what you’ll discover is that the winemaker’s expertise and the winery’s expensive equipment are more important than where the grapes are sourced. In many instances, they’re grown in one region and vinified in another. This is why the European Union only recognizes two of Bulgaria’s wine regions (Danubian Plain and the Thracian Lowlands) in terms of quality.

This issue has largely been a result of fragmented land holdings. With the fall of Communism, the government wanted to resolve pre-1947 ownership of plots. My friend explained that: “Yes, vineyards, unfortunately fell into the hands of people who had no vine growing experience whatsoever. But here you are, let us say you are a young man living in the city. One day you get a call. You find out your grandfather used to own land in Lozitza near the Danube. That was in 1939. You live now in Varna on the coast. What are you going to do? It is on the other side of the country and you don’t have the money or the time to work the land. But you don’t want to sell it, either. You are very proud of your family. The land has been returned to you; you don’t want to just let go of it. So, for many, the vineyards just fall into neglect.”

So if you’re in the wine store, it won’t much matter where the wine is from as who is making it.

In the north, top producers are as follows: Russe (under Russian ownership since 2003), Suhindol (best known in the west), Magura, Festa Holdings, Vinex Slavyantzi.

And in the south: Boyar (one of the biggest selling - 65 million bottles worldwide) Vini Sliven, Blueridge, Beleveder Group, Vizvanod Assenovgrod, Peshtera Group (a leading Bulgarian spirits producer) and Damianitza.

FINAL WORD

I had a great chat with my new Bulgarian friend. He told me about his culture shock when he first arrived in Canada. Apparently nudity isn’t a problem in Bulgaria and children swim naked. When he went home to the Black Sea (the Cherno More in Bulgarian), he told a friend children had to wear bathing suits in Canada. His friend replied, “they must be sick people!”

“The fact that you are ashamed of nudity makes you suspect in my friend’s eyes. And in the eyes of my country.”

Bulgarian beach with nudity edited out (note there are two sailboats)

I had to laugh. Maybe we are a bit twisted – too much Victoria prudery.

He also mentioned a therapist he met at a business conference. She told him that we are all intrinsically connected to our homeland. It made sense as he talked of Chernobyl, a city he knew that was literally wiped out by an environmental mishap. The citizens had safely gotten away but within a year, many had died of cancer. His belief: their city had ‘died’ and its displaced people eventually died with it.

“That is why I have to go back to my homeland. I have to be there. To see it, to live it. Yes, the Black Sea is beautiful. Do not get me wrong, Canada is nice but a temporary home. I have work here. But I have to go to my true home once a year. And when I am there, I drink my country’s wine. It gets me through the year.”

Bibliography

Fielden, Christopher, Exploring the World of Wine and Spirits. WSET: London, 2005.

Johnson, Hugh and Jancis Robinson, The World Atlas of Wine. Bounty Books, London, 2001.

Robinson, Jancis (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2006.

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In-Depth: Eastern Europe - Slovenian Wine

Wine-dark grapes smell sweet here...

-Anna Akhmatova

France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal all have fascinating histories. France was once divided between the Franks and the Normans. Italy, long after the fall of Rome fell under the political sway of  both Spain and Austria. The lands of present day Portugal and Spain were once ruled by the Moors and latter-day Germany was divided into tiny territories (Bavaria, Prussia, Swabia etc.) before unification under Bismark.

Over time, these western countries took shape and acquired their present character. As for Eastern Europe, many nations such as Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and even Greece had been conquered and torn by western powers (notably Austria) and the east (Russia and Turkey), leaving little time for them to establish their mark in the world.

SLOVENIA

Tucked in between Italy and Croatia, Slovenia’s share of the Adriatic shoreline is consequently minimal. Though small,  it is nonetheless a beautiful country with a diverse background.

This country had partaken in the livelihood of greater powers for over two millennia. The land once belonged to the Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD), to the Principality of Carantania (7th century), the Holy Roman Empire (10th century), the Habsburg Monarchy (14th century – 18th century), the Austrian Empire (19th century), and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (20th century). Between the two world wars, it struggled under the political yoke of the Germans, the Italians and Hungarians before becoming part of Croatia.

In 1991, after centuries of foreign rule, the country finally gained independence. However, it has a long winemaking history despite the decrees of differing empires, monarchies and kingdoms. In Ancient times, the Celts and Illyrians tribes made wine here before the Romans. During the Middle Ages, the monks and monasteries took over before the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Following World War II, production fell into the hands of co-operatives and quality became an issue. In 1967, the PSVVS was founded, a business association devoted to improving the identity of Slovenian wine. Over a decade after independence, Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004.

The country produces approximately 1 million hectoliters of wine per year, three quarters of which is white. Of this, 5% (or about 50,000 hectoliters) is exported to other Eastern European countries, North America, Italy and Germany. There are over 40,000 registered wine growers covering 24,600 hectares of land, making for a fragmented world of vineyard quality.

It is my belief that without a strong government identity, it is difficult to be recognized in the international wine market (Canada is experiencing this now as many grape growers are being undermined by the government).

Slowly but surely, Slovenia is emerging from the shadow of its dark and strife-ridden past as her wines are finally gaining the recognition the country deserves.

 Slovenian vineyards

VARIETIES IN SLOVENIA

As I mentioned, white grapes make up the majority of the Slovenian vineyard, many of which are of eastern European origin. These include: Šipon (also known as Furmint in Hungary), Ranina (Bouvier in Austria – a cross between Zöldsilváni and Chardonnay), Kraljevina, Pinela, Zelen, and Rebula (in Italy: Ribolla).

In terms of International varieties, they are planted here in abundance but grown under their Slavic names: Sauvignon Blanc becomes Muškatni Silvanec (inspired by the German  name for Sauv Blanc - Muskat Silvaner); Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris in Slovenia are Beli, Modri and Sivi Pinot, respectively. Traminer is Traminec, Riesling is Renski Rizling (not to be confused with Welschriesling which is Laški Rizling), Müller-Thurgau is Rizvanec and Blaufränkisch is Modra Franinja.

The Italian varieties Refosco and Picolit simply become Refošk and Pikolit. (The Refošk red I tried from Vinakoper - see 'Deciphering Slovenian Wine Labels' below - was exceptional: chocolate and cedar, tobacco and mulch held together by deep blackberry fruit... lush and delicious.)

Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay thankfully keep their names for easy recognition.

SLOVENIAN VINEYARDS

There are three wine regions which are further divided into 14 sub-regions:

PRIMORSKA is right on the coast. Here the climate is Mediterranean and the wines more Italian in style – dry whites and firm, fuller-bodied reds. In some instances, the vineyards of Primorska are just a continuation of Italian ones: Collio becomes Brda, Kras is east of Corso. Vipava and Koper make up the other sub-regions.

Near Koper, the town of Piran stretches towards the idyll Adriatic

POSAVJE is more continental in climate, divided by the Sava River (Dolenjsk in the south, Bizeljsko and Smarje north of the river). In some parts of the region, especially Bela Krajna, the wines tend to be fuller as red grapes can ripen with ease. But the region is also perfect for producing botrytized wines (from grapes that have experienced Noble Rot, helping to concentrate the sugar and make the wine sweet).

PRODAJVE in the north east is similar to its neighbor in terms of climate. Resting along the Darva River, the wines grown in this region are lower in alcohol and typically white. You can find sweet wines to rival the best of Austria along with Icewine (during the good years) and Sparkling wine which is on the increase. Subregions: Maribor, Haloze, Radgona-Kapel, Predmurske, Sredjeslovenske Gorice, Prekmurske Gorice and Ljutomer-Ormoz.

DECIPHERING SLOVENIAN WINE LABELS

If you thought German labels were tough, well, I'm sorry to report, these are a bit tougher. Written in the Slovenian language, they can be rather intimidating. But there's hope as most of what's on the label is rather essential. Here's a breakdown: 

VINAKOPER – is the name of the producer. Koper (in Primorska on the Adriatic coast)  is also the place where the grapes have been sourced.

REFOŠK – is the variety, also known as Refosco in Italy. Remember, the wines of the Primorska region have Italian-style wines because they are closer to Italy.

KLASIČNA PREDELAVA – translates as ‘Classical Production’ or Classic.

VRHUNSKO VINO ZGP – means the wine is the highest or ‘top quality’ vino. The ZGP or Zaščiteno geografsko poreklo is the quality control division of Slovenia’s wine industry. According to the law, all wines must be analyzed, tested and scored before they are delivered to the market. During this process, the wine is determined to be one of the following:  


namizno vino (table wine),
deželno vino (wine from a specific part of the country similar to Italy’s IGT),  
kakovostno vino (quality wine) and 
vrhunsko vino (or top-quality wine).

PRIDELAL IN POLNI – literally ‘grown and bottled’ by the producer Vinakoper

PRIDELEANO V SLOVENIJI – Grown in Slovenia.


FINAL WORD
Slovenian wine is not nearly as popular as Italian wine. You're more likely to find a Greek or Croatian wine before you track down a white or red from Primorska, Prosavje or Prodavje. But if you're determined, check out the LCBO, especially the Vintages stores in major cities. The more popular these wines become, the more likely you'll see them around. In time, hopefully, Slovenian wine will gain a greater following. This  great country certainly deserves it.


Bibliography
Johnson, Hugh and Jancis Robinson, The World Atlas of Wine, Bounty Books, London, 2001.
Robinson, Jancis, Jancis Robinson's Wine Course. Abbeville Press, New York, 2003.
Robinson, Jancis (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2006.

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The Other Italy - Umbria: Getting out of Tuscany's Shadow

Umbria's narrow streets like cisterns

that stop up ancient time tasting of sweet wine,

Adam Jagajewski 'To See'

Let’s face it a book called Under the Umbrian Sun would cause more confusion than inspire sales. Tuscany exudes the romance many travelers need when they imagine Italy. Umbria (or, for some, ‘Tuscany without the coast’), unfortunately doesn’t have the same tourist-attracting panache as its western neighbor. For those with Florence and Sienna in mind, the capital of the region, Perugia sounds to most North Americans like something you spread on a pizza as opposed to a place to visit.

But there’s more to this landlocked landscape. I won’t use the term ‘diamond in the rough’ but it is a wine region that needs a little bit more time to ferment attraction and attention.

UMBRIA: THE HISTORY

Umbria is the 4th smallest of Italy’s 20 regions in terms of physical size and population. With Tuscany to the north and west, Marche and the Apennines to the east and Lazio to the south, Umbria is completely surrounded by Italian neighbors – unlike other regions that share a border or seaway with another country.

Named for the Umbri tribes who settled in the region around the 6th century B.C., the area is largely mountainous. Archaeological finds in the region indicate there was a wine culture existing before the Romans. The Romans loved Umbrian wines which at the time were mainly white with some reds and rosés.

Monastery in Assisi

One of the main tourist attractions is the town of Assisi, birthplace of St. Francis who founded the Franciscan Order there in 1208. The other town of interest is -

ORVIETO

During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the town of Orvieto became a highly reputed artistic centre. It was in Orvieto cathedral, during the late 14th century, that Ugolino di Prete Ilario began to paint the Life of the Virgin, a wall mosaic in the apse illustrating various scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary (Ugolino died before it was completed; his students Pintuiricchio and Antonio Viterbo finished the piece.)

Life of the Virgin

The work compliments Ugolino’s other famous masterpiece, Miracle of Bolsena, a series of scenes depicting Christ’s passion also painted in the cathedral in the Cappella (Chapel) del Corporale. Michealangelo is said to have been influenced by these works when he painted his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

The wine of Orvieto could then be the liquid artistic equivalent of the great Italian masterpieces and architecture of Umbria. During the twelfth century, the various popes who came to admire Ugolino’s work, summered at Lake Corbara where they drank this thick, sweet wine from Orvieto. The sweetness was achieved by storing the grapes in humid caves following the harvest. While waiting to be pressed, the grapes would get moldy, the Noble Rot then would concentrate the fruit flavours.

The famed poet, Gabriele D‘Annunzio called the wine ‘the sun of Italy in a bottle’.

Town of Orvieto with Cathedral in the far right corner

ORVIETO IN MODERN TIMES

Today, the town of Orvieto continues to rest remote and timeless on its ancient hilltop. The wines of the area have become more modern in style. The majority of these whites are invariably secco (dry) and commonly exported to the North American market. However, if you happen to visit Italy, and make your way into Umbria, you may even be able to track down an Abboccato style (slightly sweet), an Amabile (semi-sweet) and a Dolce (sweet) in some grocery store or wine shop.

Orvieto, like Chianti in nearby Tuscany, is a blend of grapes. The predominant is Trebbiano, known locally as Procanico. The other varieties include: Verdello, Grechetto, Drupeggio and/or Malvasia Toscana. Wine produced around the historical area of Orvieto can be called ‘Classico’ because they are the original vineyard sites for this wine.

Today, there is a new Orvieto emerging in the form of an Orvietano Rosso, a red blend from numerous grapes including a 70% mix of Aleatico, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Canaiolo (used in Chianti), Ciliegiol, Merlot, Montepulciano (famous in Abruzzo), Pinot Nero (also known as Italian Pinot Noir) and Sangiovese; and up to 30% Barbera and Dolcetto (both grown in Piedmont), Cesanese, and Colorino. Whewww!... A lot of grapes but the region is growing more potential.

MONTEFALCO

Sagrantino is considered the new star grape in the Italian world of winemaking grown particularly in Montefalco. Recently, Sagrantino di Montefalco was elevated to DOCG status in the mid-1990s. The grape is often blended with Sangiovese. Nicolas Belfrage in his book, Brunello to Zibibbo believes the latter grape has a better ‘affinity’ with Sagrantino than the French varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

The grape has been in the area for a considerably long time. Some believe it dates back to the Roman times, the Itriola grape mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History. Others suggest it was originally from the Middle East and brought to the region via Spain. Franciscan monks from the Middle Ages are rumoured to have first planted the variety. Whatever the story, Sagrantino has a strong presence in Central Italy.

Despite the size of its small berries and bunches, it is big in other ways including colour, acid, sugars, tannin, extract and sugar. Like the Corvina grape used to make Valpolicella, it has contributed to making and still to some extent today, semi-sweet wines. The grapes, like we find in Amarone and Ripasso were dried and pressed. Traditionally, the wines were consumed for special occasions like Lent. With 30-100 grammes of residual sugar per litre, it was far too massive of a wine used for mass (although the name Sagrantino or sacramento - ‘sacramental’ - suggests a different story).

Up until the end of the 20th century, Sagrantino remained under the radar. It was until the 1990s that the Arnaldo Caprai winery helped to create renewed interest in the variety. Arnaldo and his son Marco, with the help of wine maker Attilio Pagli experimented with the variety, modernized and reorganized their winery and launched this little-known, small-berried grape onto the world stage. The results have all been positive.

Orvieto and Montefalco are places beyond the usual tourist-beaten path. Their wines have a quiet romanticism simply worth seeking out, from the chilling and beautiful lemon-citrus of the dry white (sometimes sweet) to the full-bodied bosom of the red. These wines exude (and I'm sure D'Annunzio would agree) the true Umbrian sun.

Bibliography

Bastianich, Joseph & David Lynch, Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy. Clarkson Potter, New York, 2005.

Belfrage, Nicolas, Brunello to Zibibbo: The Wines of Tuscany, Central and Southern Italy. Mitchell Beazley, London, 2001. Cernilli, Daniele & Marco Sabellico, The New Italy. Mitchell Beazley, London, 2008.

Clark, Oz, 2009 Pocket Wine Guide. Harcourt Publishing, Orlando, 2008.

Insight Guides, ed. Insight Guides Italy, 6th Edition. London, 2009.

Robinson, Jancis (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Wine. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2006.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Happy b-day Pete Magreet

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