Coming Back from the Shadows

Wine has been a part of Bulgarian culture for thousands of years. You know how Homer was talking about Odysseus wandering around Thrace getting Cyclopses drunk on wine? Same area. The Romans arrived and, for once, did not have to introduce grapes and winemaking. “Yeah, we’re already doing that,” said the ancestors of the Bulgarians, “We’ve been doing that!” Throughout the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, throughout being subsumed into the Soviet Union, Bulgaria made and exported wine.

Then the Soviet Union fell and Bulgaria’s central economy collapsed causing Bulgarian wine to disappear from many international markets. However, the industry is proving to be as resilient as a grape vine. Even though, wine grape acreage continues to decrease, a new generation of winemakers and importers is breathing life back into Bulgaria’s wine industry.

Native Bulgarian Nataliya Georgieva spent four months of 2013 in Paris studying French and Spanish Applied Linguistics and trying French wine. Once she returned home, she became determined to export Bulgarian wine, starting Bohemish Wines in 2021. In 2014, Petar Georgiev and Radostin Milkov started their winery in the Thracian Valley with an eye to producing quality sustainable wines from Bulgarian native grapes. Now you can find their wines in DC and here.

This Wednesday, we have a guest pourer from Bohemish Wines tasting us on Georgiev/Milkov wines and others. Please join us and be the first of your friends to taste wines from this re-emerging region.