2018 Assenovgrad Winery, Mavrud, Asen’s Fortress, Red Wine, Thracian Valley, Bulgaria.
I tasted this bottle, which was brought back from Bulgaria by a friend’s daughter, with it’s local home market label instead of the English language export version, it is a traditional Bulgarian red wine, made from from the indigenous Mavrud grape and was fermented and aged exclusively in stainless steel vat, making for a lovely pure, dry and red fruited expression of this rare, in the West, varietal. This clean and bright ruby red Mavrud, which drinks a bit like Pinot Noir and or Gamay, is medium bodied with vivid cherry, wild plum, cranberry and red currant fruits, along with a bit of brambly spice, mineral, tangy/minty herbs and orange peel. This wine opens up nicely and has mild tannins, a touch of creamy texture and at 13.5% natural alcohol, comes across ripe, but nicely balanced, making it pleasing, clean and interesting, which is better than most Eastern European efforts which mostly still suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome, of the lost years under Soviet rule. This is especially true in the Balkans, with Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania having it very tough under the Soviet regime, where collectives produced cheap wines for the Russia market, and old family estates disappeared maybe forever and many native varietals, sadly, were ripped out all together as in later years the Soviets wanted to sell cheap wine to the west and thought international grapes like Merlot were a better sell to world markets. I’ve been luck to have tasted many Bulgarian wines through the years, mostly with depressing results, so it was uplifting to taste such a fun and tasty wine as this Asen’s Fortress red by Assenovgrad Winery so unexpectedly and I hope we see many more of Bulgaria’s historic varietals make a comeback too. Bulgaria is a ways behind Hungary and the Republic of Georgia in terms of quality and the cool factor, but there is lots of potential if given the chance, with a country that has tremendous, almost California like diversity of terroirs and nature, with high mountains (great skiing), cool coastal regions to the east (Black Sea), beautiful rolling hills and forest areas and the more arid Thracian Valley, perfect for deep red wines.
Assenovgrad Winery, based in the village of Assenovgrad, in Bulgaria’s ancient growing region of Plovdiv in the Thracian Valley, in the south-west corner, home to some of the oldest orthodox Christian monasteries in the world and the country’s main wine area. The Mavrud grape, or Mavroudi as it is known in Greece, is a dark-skinned grape varietal that is widely believed to be of Bulgarian origin, it is found throughout the Balkan counties, though mainly here in Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Greece and Albania. This grape, which depending on market tastes can be used to make wines of various levels of sweetness, but has been more recently, with modern technology and farming, done as a dry red wine with some success, especially here in the Thracian Valley, though still not as well thought of as it deserves. Interestingly, there was at one time speculation amongst some grape growers that Mavrud might actually be an ancient clone of Mourvédre, maybe originally imported into Bulgaria by the Romans, but that almost certainly has now been proven not the case, even with some vine similarities. Winegrowing, not only suffered here from the Soviets, but also during the rule and occupation of the Ottoman Empire, who’s aversion to alcohol through their religious faith led to the destruction of many vineyards during their harsh reign. One of the other local myths regarding Marrud, is the legend that tells of how Mavrud got its name and survived the Ottoman rule. It goes that during the reign of Khan Krum of Bulgaria, all vineyards were ordered destroyed, though later, a lion (or other monster) escaped from its cage and terrorized his city, however, a fearless young man named Mavrud (hence the name of a wine grape) confronted and slew the lion. After which the grateful king summoned Mavrud’s mother to learn the source of her son’s remarkable courage. She confessed to him that she had secretly saved a grapevine, made a small batch of wine, and that this was the source of Mavrud’s bravery, where upon his majesty the king Khan Krum ordered the vineyards to be replanted. While not against some of the international grapes grown here in Bulgaria, they are just not as exciting to me personally and my curious nature gravitates to the almost lost varietals rebirth as seen here!
($16 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive