by Will Lyons, Scotsman Newspaper
There was a time in this country when Bulgarian cabernet sauvignon was as popular as Australian shiraz is now. Back in the 1908s, when we looked east for our bargain-basement wines, Bulgaria and Romania ruled the roost, dominating the ВЈ2-to-ВЈ3 sector with ripe, juicy wines produced from unusual grape varieties such as gamza, mavrud and melnik.
This year, the two countries have become the 26th and 27th members of the European Union, and as I write are no doubt benefiting from considerable funds through the EU's generous agriculture and rural development scheme. Judging by their limited presence in the British market, they're going to need it. Times have certainly changed.
A friend rang me recently to complain that he couldn't find any Bulgarian wine at his local off-licence. "I was after something a little bit different," he lamented. "But all I could find was row upon row of the usual Australian bottles."
Knowing his politics, I dropped in a little teaser. "Well, you know who to blame for that," I replied. "Your friend Gorbachev."
From the mid-1960s, Bulgaria's wine industry was chugging along very nicely. In 1985 it produced 4.5 million hectolitres of wine - almost as much as Germany makes, and certainly a great deal more than Australia. It's interesting to note that at one stage Bulgaria was this country's fourth-largest supplier of red wine. But then Gorbachev came along, intent on drying out the USSR. His attempts to sober up the Soviet Union led to the uprooting of huge tracts of Bulgarian vineyards. In true communist style, the system then fixed the price of grapes year-on-year, regardless of quality. The farmers lost interest and quality levels dipped alarmingly. In 1990, despite a fantastic vintage, just 1.8 million hectolitres were produced.
When Bulgaria's communist dictator Todor Zhivkov was finally deposed in 1989, the wine sector was hastily liberalised, but chaos ensued. An agricultural restitution programme, whereby land was handed back to descendants of the original owners, was introduced with often disastrous results. City types with little knowledge of farming were often the inheritors of the land, and this led to the country being littered with badly run vineyards.
The EU's agriculture and rural development programme is vastly improving matters. Under the terms, Brussels will make a substantial investment. New vines are being planted and stainless-steel vats are being installed as a result. Last year Stork Nest Estates announced a Г›5 million investment, while in 2005 a new Г›6.5 million winery was opened in the Bessa valley. The Bulgarian government has published a report that aims to improve quality, and there is a move towards promoting the various wine regions. EU accession will make the logistics much easier, particularly in terms of taxes.
For now, though, the market is still dominated by Domaine Boyar, the maker of Blueridge. The wines are acceptable, if a little overcooked, but they offer a welcome trip down memory lane for the romantics among us.
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