About Bulgaria

In fifteenth century, Bulgaria was appended by Ottoman Turkish Empire, of Muslim persuasion. Viticulture was put permanently in sleep.

It is only after the First World War that Bulgaria produced quantites of wine large enough to export throughout the former Soviet Union. This exporting tradition has not diminished since the country continues exporting 80 percent of its wine production.

Bulgarian white wines are made from a grape variety belonging to the family of muscatels, the misket. It is a very sweet-scented wine which they produce predominantly in the central region of Korlovo and north of the country. The country counts two other original white grape varieties, the rkatsiteli (native of Georgia) and the dimiat.

For red wines, cabernet-sauvignon and merlot are the basis of three quarters of all wines produced. They are often blended with good local grape varieties. The mavrud (meaning "black") is a product of dark, rather tannic and seasoned wines, with the taste of plum. It is in most cases cultivated in the south of the country, near Asenovgrad. The melnik, produced near the Greek border, gives tough and also tannic wines. The gamza, cultivated also in Hungary under the name of Kardaka, deal of the rather tannic and muscular wines.