Bulgaria

The Ministry of Tourism guide says wine production in Bulgaria has a tradition of over a thousand years. It describes the ancient Thracians using wine in rituals for the gods Zagreus and Dionysus, points to shrines and to gold and silver Thracian vessels for serving and drinking wine, and notes that Homer praised Thracian wines. The Thracian Lowlands technical file adds that 90% of the vessels found in excavations there are connected with wine. With the founding of the Bulgarian state these traditions were kept, and medieval travellers mention many good wines. The guide places the start of a professional approach to vine growing and winemaking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The two national PGIs have been protected in the EU since 2007.

The Danube Plain PGI lies between the Danube and the slopes of the Stara Planina, from the Timok to the Black Sea, mostly at 100–250 m and at 300–400 m towards the Pre-Balkan. Its climate is temperate-continental, at 10–12.2 °C, with cold winters (milder in the east), hot dry summers, the country's largest annual temperature range (25 °C) and 450–650 mm of rain; soils are chernozems on loess and grey forest soils. The Thracian Lowlands PGI covers the south, between the Balkan slopes, the Rila-Rhodope massif and Strandzha, west to the Struma valley and east to the Black Sea, at 100–500 m. Sredna Gora and the Stara Planina stop cold northern air, and Mediterranean influence reaches up the Maritsa, Tundzha, Struma and Arda valleys. Winters are mild, around 0 °C in January, and summers hot and dry, with 500–650 mm of rain. Cinnamonic forest soils are the most widespread. The tourism guide calls the Struma valley around Melnik and Sandanski nearly Mediterranean.

The Thracian Lowlands file ties its mild, warm transitional climate and cinnamonic forest soils to wines that are highly extractive and rich in alcohol, with noble tannins prominent. It describes red wines as dark ruby with garnet tints and aromas of cherries, sour cherries, blackberries and plums, with dense, well-balanced tannins. The Danube Plain file ties its temperate-continental climate and chernozems on loess to whites with citrus, herb and wildflower aromas and fresh, balanced acidity, and to reds with dark and red berries, plums, spice and soft tannins. The tourism guide says the long warm autumns of the eastern zone suit semi-dry white wines.

The EU register lists two Bulgarian wine PGIs, Дунавска равнина (Danube Plain) and Тракийска низина (Thracian Lowlands), and 52 PDOs. A blended wine may carry a geographical indication if 85% of its grapes come from the named area. The files name the Executive Agency on Vine and Wine as the national intermediary. The tourism guide's five zones are Northern, Eastern (Black Sea, Dobrudzha, Ludogorie), Southern (the Upper Thracian Plain and part of Sakar), South-western (the Struma valley) and Sub-Balkan. It names local varieties by area: Mavrud around Asenovgrad, Pazardzhik and Perushtitsa; Shiroka Melnishka only around Melnik, Petrich and Sandanski; Gamza in the north-west (another name for Kadarka, the guide says); Pamid, one of the oldest varieties; Dimyat in the Black Sea zone; and Cherven Misket in the Sub-Balkan zone. International varieties include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.