Mezzek, Mavrud 2013
Where: Thracian Valley, Bulgaria. Yeah, I didn't know they made wine, either. Apparently, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria was the world's second largest wine producer by volume. It sounds like most of that was of sub-Carlo Rossi quality red table wine for consumption in Warsaw Pact nations. Somebody had to make the people's wine, I guess...so you might as well do it in one of the sunniest nation of formerly communist Europe. At any rate, the more I look into it, the more it sounds like the region of Thrace is a real up-and-coming wine producer. I'm going to Turkey in two months and will be taking a day-long wine tour of the Turkish wine country in Thrace, but damn...now I want to go to Bulgarian Thrace, too, because...well, you'll see.
Appearance: Dark ruby. In other words, it's a deep, vibrant reddish purple, but still not "inky" - I can kinda see my fingers wiggle through the glass.
Aroma: This is where things get fun. I didn't really know what to expect; I've never had any wine made from the Mavrud grape before, or anything from Bulgaria (or the rest of Thrace, for that matter), so I didn't know what to expect. Typical or not, I don't know, but this wine has a really delicious aroma of red berries (strawberry and raspberry in particular), with some vanilla and a little hint of toasty oak.
Taste: Wowza. This is going to be dorkily poetic, but...this tastes like sunlight drifting through forest leaves and landing on a patch of berries. You could write haiku about how this tastes. Bright, fruity, but not overpoweringly so - it's still dry. The vanilla and bit of spice that suggest some oak aging come in after the fruit, and are just so perfectly balanced it'll make you slap your momma for another sip. The texture is just so smooth and soft; this is like silk in your mouth, with soft, elegant tannins. Easy drinking - almost dangerously so considering its ABV is listed at 14.5%, but you wouldn't guess. It lingers, too - not super complex, but interesting.
Food: I had this with a nice, hearty, Mediterranean-influenced lentil stew and it worked well. I might not pair this with a full-on heavy red meat assault, but then again, this has got just enough oomph to maybe cut it. This would be aces with grilled chicken, pork, or even lamb. I can also totally see this working (not too surprisingly) with some typical Greek/Turkish flavors - stewed eggplant, moussaka, gyros, souvlaki, maybe even a fattier fish stewed with tomatoes and onion. Also, this is REDONKS with dark chocolate with raspberry...I had with a Ghirardelli square, but I'd kill to have this with a not-too-sweet chocolate cake with a raspberry jam ribbon.
You want to know the best part? I seriously paid *maybe* $9 for the bottle, and that's Chicago price, city booze tax and all. This drinks like it could be priced for $30. Go track this one down, fellow winos - you won't regret it.
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