Julia Kostadinova a Bulgarian wine author and critic updates us on Greek wine prospects in her country Normally people dont see any difference between my country Bulgaria and our neighbor Romania For the rest of the world we are just the two new poor members of EU and instead of explaining the interesting Balkan relationships state of mind and political geography for me it is far easier to say we are north from Greece For objective reasons everybody catches the clue However no one suspects what stands behind this simple sentence especially when it comes to wines In the end I have to admit that at this stage Bulgaria is not the dream market for the Greek white wines in terms of volumes But the good news is that the situation could be soon and easily changed without strong marketing support it is enough for the locals just to know that these wines exist Right now the Greek wines are present only in the best places they are not offered in the supermarkets or in the taverns Yet I am sure that things will be quite different in few years because this is the very beginning of a new neighbourhood story which starts now Working in Bulgarian wine business for 10 years I am not very proud to admit that I discovered Greek wines three years ago roughly speaking But what a discovery At that time there was only one importer of Greek wines in Bulgaria who worked with one of the most successful producers from Northern Greece Biblia Chora My first date was on a blind tasting in which I tasted many blended white wines from so called Old World And then there came Greece vintage 2005 I clearly remember that it was not only a surprise I was sure that there was a mistake Later on I returned to this first meeting many times and I kept thinking how unfair all our prejudices are Youll never get a second chance to make a first impression remember What we knew about Greek wines was less than little And suddenly came this white wine fresh and charming vivid full of sunshine delicious But the best thing was that it was made at about 100 kilometers from our border So I thought maybe we can also make it For some reason after studying many of the significant wine producers in Greece I found that we cant This is one of the universal mysteries which in my opinion have very logical explanation On one hand as a country north of Greece Bulgaria is supposed to produce better white wines Quite similar to Germany or Austria On the other as a southern country and presumably very hot place Greece apparently needs more whites and rose wines Nobody likes to drink Supertoscan in the heat right It was a matter of time for the good Greek wines to appear on our market filling a small part at least for now of the niche of what is most missing here refreshing not very splendid whites yet with personality and character And what we Bulgarians like best about them is that we dont get another Chardonnay but something different and new even if sometimes it is not easily pronounceable An important and significant fact which helps getting the whole picture and the mixture of cultures here on the Balkans is that retsina wines are sold very well here We are probably one of the few countries in the world where tones of retsina have been drunk not by Greek immigrants but by local people The same is with ouzo which is even more popular now than in the communist past However you will be surprised to find that even in neighbouring countries both members of EU the choice of Greek wines in the supermarket is rather poor They are mostly sold in the best restaurants in the three major cities Sofia Plovdiv and Varna What helps a lot for the promotion of Greek wines is the business with seafood and fresh fish coming every morning from Thessaloniki with three or four wellknown companies I can swear that in this very moment 90 of the really good restaurants here in Sofia are now offering their clients sea bass coming fresh from Salonica So thats how assyrtiko from Santorini here presented with Sigalas and Gaia malagousia with assyrtiko from Domaine Gerovassiliou or moschofilero from Antonopoulos are appearing in some wine lists Quite frankly for the time being Greek seafood has a considerable advantage comparing to the wines but Greek restaurants are being opened with amazing speed The wines will follow them It is inevitable In the end I have to admit that at this stage Bulgaria is not the dream market for the Greek white wines in terms of volumes But the good news is that the situation could be soon and easily changed without strong marketing support it is enough for the locals just to know that these wines exist Right now the Greek wines are present only in the best places they are not offered in the supermarkets or in the taverns Yet I am sure that things will be quite different in few years because this is the very beginning of a new neighbourhood story which starts now