Bulgarians on the march

The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is one of the most important events for quality wines in the world. Here 300 hundred professionals, the best tasters from around the world, gather every year to judge the wines in competition. The tasting sessions are renowned for the seriousness of the regulations, the methods used for judging and the professionalism of those taking part. Inaugurated in 1994, in 2006 it began to be held outside Belgium in other European cities to then return to Brussels in 2014 to mark its 20th anniversary. This year the event was staged in Bulgaria, in Plovdiv, from April 29th to May 1st.

The Italian and Bulgarian wines that won prizes were presented on June 23rd at the Bulgarian embassy in Rome where guests were able to taste four Grand Gold Medal wines, 36 Gold Medal winners and 19 Silver Medal ones. The presentation concluded with a buffer dinner in the villa’s magnificent garden with the specialties of the two countries.

Given the number of quality wines offered, I focused my attention above all on seven Bulgarian estates: Dives Estate, Vinzavod Assenovgrad, Edoardo Miroglio, Angelus Estate, Bessa Valley, Slavyantsi, and Villa Melnik. In Italy, unfortunately, it is not easy to find Bulgarian wines even if Bulgaria has ancient winemaking traditions dating back to the Thracians, 1,000 years before Christ. Homer referred to the wine in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, where Ulysses used wine from Ismaro, a mountain in ancient Thrace, to get the cyclops Polyphemus drunk.

Here I have chosen four Gold Medal wines from three estates: Edoardo Miroglio, Bessa Valley and Vinzavod Assenovgrad. However, the quality of all the wines presented was very high.

Edoardo Miroglio Winery was founded in 2002 by the Piedmont entrepreneur of the same name who is not only famous in the textile sector but is also the owner of Tenuta Carretta in Roero and Malgrà in the area of Asti. The winery is east of Plovdic, more precisely the village of Elenovo near Nova Zagora. The some 200 hectare of vineyards are planted with both native and international varieties like Pinot Noir, which here enjoys an ideal climate. Donato Lanati, who is already the enologist at the two wineries in Piedmont, has been leading the team of Italian and Bulgarian winemakers here since last year.

Bessa Valley Winery was born in 2001 when Count Stephan von Neipperg acquired land from 800 small landowners in the region of Pazardzhik. Count von Neipperg, who earned a degree in economics and political science in Paris and then one in enology at the University if Montpellier, already owned six wineries in Bordeaux but in Bulgaria found a land with a great potential to produce quality wine. Part of his cellar is carved out of rock in order to create an ideal environment to conserve and age wine. The grapes are hand-picked and selected by qualified staff and for aging only barriques of French oak are used and not more than three times.

Vinzavod Assenovgrad evolved from the Stanimashki Mavrud cooperative founded in 1947. In 2000, a joint Bulgarian-Swedish initiative resulted in a new winery to produce quality red wines using native and international grapes under the supervision of the famous Swedish winemaker Lars Torstenson. Located in Plovdiv, the estate has over 200 hectares of vineyards and from 2001 to 2004 the winegrowing methods were totally revamped and modern technology was introduced in the winery as well as for bottling operations.

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