’If you want to visit the vineyards, you’ll have to go in the bus we use to transport the gypsy pickers to the vineyards, but it’s really dirty and old. Your bus can’t go up there, it’s too muddy.’ That didn’t put us off, we wanted to visit the vineyards too, not just taste the wines, although we were looking forward to that too.
It turned out that it was not too muddy and the bus wasn’t that bad, except for those sitting on the wooden chairs and bench at the back, as we bumped and wound our way up to the top of the hill, driven by Christo, past vineyards intersperced with tobacco plantations. However, normally the minibus would have seated, or most likely stood, forty people rather than our rather puny twelve or so. We had a fine view over the Bratanov vineyards which stretched in every direction, leaves beginning to change into their autumnal finery, and sampled some of the very few berries the diligent pickers had left on the vines. Or maybe the cows, which we were informed, also chomp on the grapes as they pass through.
It’s a real family business. Father and son planted 24 hectares of vineyards between 2005 and 2008 and in 2010 set up their own wine-making facilities with a production capacity of 100 tonnes of grapes. Christo manages the winery, his wife, Tanya, the marketing side and his father the vineyards, which are organic and dry farmed.
The vineyards are slightly more picturesque than the ugly, socialist industrial building, formerly a sewing factory, which currently houses the winery. The location is not particularly scenic, but inside they are turning out very attractive wines from both international and local varieties, such as Tamianka and Mavrud. In 2011, they created an interesting blend from Tamianka and Chardonnay, naming it Simbiose, to honour not only the simbiotic relationship between the soil and the vines, but also the relations between the various grape varieties and the relations between a father and his sons.
Another symbiosis is that they share their wine-making facilities with Ivo Varbanov, a classical pianist living in England. His wines are made, very much in his own style, from seven hectares of low-yielding vineyards planted around the village of Izorovo, quality wines with the highest respect for nature. His wines are named after a musical composition, such Clair de Lune, or perhaps a musical character, e.g. Scaramouche – ceci n’est pas un rosé, his blend of Marselan and Syrah aged 18 months in Bulgarian oak, which he states should be enjoyed as a serious food wine and NOT as an aperitif. These names of course change every vintage, as ’nature like art does not repeat itself’, says Ivo. Ivo’s wines are listed in numerous restaurants and wine shops in London.
Ivo Varbanov
Phone: +44 7956 377705
Email: ivo@ivovarbanov.com
Web: www.ivovarbanov.com
