Wine List

The national flagship. Thracian Lowlands, concentrated around Asenovgrad and Plovdiv.

“Broad-leaved Melnik vine.” Grown almost exclusively in the Struma Valley around Melnik and Sandanski in the far southwest, where the Mediterranean influence gives it the heat it needs.

A 1944 Nebbiolo × Syrah cross from the Pleven institute — Bulgarian-bred, not indigenous.

Grown on the Danubian Plain, around Suhindol, Pleven and Novo Selo.

Bred at Sandanski in the mid-20th century by crossing Shiroka Melnishka Loza with a French variety (usually given as Valdiguié) to produce something that ripens reliably.

Mavrud × Pinot Noir, also from Pleven (early 1950s).

The historic workhorse white of the Black Sea coast, around Varna and Shumen, closely related to Serbian Smederevka.

Bulgaria’s most distinctive white and its best claim to a signature aromatic grape.

A rare white from the Kresna Gorge area in the southwest, historically confined to a few villages.

The Bulgarian name for Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains — traditional in Bulgaria but not native to it.

A small quality revival is under way, including skin-contact versions.

Made dry, off-dry and occasionally sparkling.

“Dye” or “paint” — one of the very few teinturier varieties in commercial use anywhere, with red flesh as well as red skin.

Racha. Together with Mujuretuli it forms Khvanchkara, the naturally semi-sweet red that was famously Stalin’s preferred wine.

Racha. The junior partner in Khvanchkara, contributing colour, sugar and richer dark fruit.

Lechkhumi. The name means “nameless.”

Samegrelo, in the humid west. The name refers to training the vine up trees, which is how it was traditionally grown.

Imereti. Deeply coloured, with unusually high tannin and acidity for a western Georgian red, and real ageing potential.

Guria and Adjara on the Black Sea coast.

Kartli. Pale, light-bodied, low in tannin, with bright sour cherry — often compared to a rustic Gamay, and also made as rosé.

Kartli. More colour, structure and spice than Tavkveri, with violet aromatics.

“Red stem.” The dominant white of Kakheti and by far the most planted variety in Georgia.

“Green,” from Kakheti. More aromatic and fuller-bodied than Rkatsiteli — peach, white flowers, a hint of tropical fruit — and the classic blending partner, typically at 10–15% of a Rkatsiteli blend.

A natural cross of Rkatsiteli and Mtsvane Kakhuri, from eastern Kakheti.

Kakheti, historically associated with the Kardenakhi area.

The most planted white of western Georgia, across Imereti, Lechkhumi and Guria.

Imereti. High acidity and a restrained citrus-and-herb profile, which makes it Georgia’s best sparkling base.

Imereti. Fuller, richer and more honeyed than its neighbours, with ripe pear and beeswax; handles skin contact and oak well.

Kartli, in central Georgia. High acid, subtle apple and white flower aromatics.

Kartli. Aromatic and crisp, usually blended with Chinuri, including in sparkling wine.

Racha, in the mountainous northwest. The basis of Tvishi, a naturally semi-sweet wine made by arresting fermentation in the cold — a traditional Georgian style, not a modern shortcut.

Made fresh and European-style it gives green apple and quince; made in qvevri with six months on skins it becomes amber, tannic and nutty, with dried apricot, walnut skin and tea.

In qvevri it is arguably Georgia’s finest amber wine grape: honey, dried pear, black tea and firm structure.

Made both in the lighter Imeretian style (shorter skin contact in churi) and in modern stainless steel.

Fuller, richer and more honeyed than its neighbours, with ripe pear and beeswax; handles skin contact and oak well.

High acidity and a restrained citrus-and-herb profile, which makes it Georgia’s best sparkling base.

Used for still wine, qvevri wine and the traditional Atenuri sparkling.

Aromatic and crisp, usually blended with Chinuri, including in sparkling wine.

Northern Greece’s great red — “sour black” — and the backbone of Naoussa, Amyndeon, Goumenissa and Rapsani.

“St George’s grape,” centred on Nemea in the Peloponnese, and the most planted red in Greece.

From Limnos, now mostly grown in Halkidiki.

Patras and Cephalonia. Famous as a fortified sweet wine — dark, raisined, chocolatey — but a growing number of producers make it dry, revealing high tannin, firm acidity and real ageing capacity.

Crete. High alcohol, soft tannins, pale colour, with red fruit and spice.

Crete, Paros, Rhodes and Santorini. The opposite profile: deep colour, hard tannin, modest alcohol.

One of Crete’s oldest vines, ripening very early — the name comes from July.

Santorini. Nearly extinct, revived from a few surviving vines by Sigalas and Hatzidakis from the 1990s.

Lefkada and the Ionian mainland. Very deep colour and firm tannin, sometimes rustic.

Zakynthos and Ilia. Early ripening, medium-bodied, with sour cherry and spice.

The most important Greek white. Native to Santorini, where ungrafted vines grown in volcanic ash are trained into basket shapes (kouloura) against the wind.

Ancient variety of Santorini, Rhodes and Macedonia.

Cycladic, mainly Santorini and Paros. Very aromatic — rose, orange blossom, peach — with low acidity.

Almost extinct by the 1970s, rescued by Vangelis Gerovassiliou from a handful of vines and now planted across northern Greece and beyond.

Grey-pink skinned, grown at altitude on the Mantinia plateau in the Peloponnese.

Pink-skinned and one of the most widely planted Greek varieties, at its best in the high-altitude vineyards of Aigialia in Achaia.

The most planted variety in Greece, centred on Attica.

Cephalonia, on steep limestone. Lemon, green apple, high acidity and a distinct mineral bite.

Crete’s most promising white revival.

The main white of the Peza and Archanes areas of Crete.

Cretan, named for laurel — the wine really does smell of bay leaf and myrtle, a very unusual aromatic signature.

Another Cretan variety brought back from near-extinction by the same effort.

Cretan, sometimes grouped with Athiri. Fuller-bodied with lower acidity, giving stone fruit and herbs.

Epirus, around Zitsa at high altitude.

Grown on Paros and in the Peloponnese; widely thought to be the origin of the name Malvasia, via the port of Monemvasia.

Laconia. The name comes from kydoni, quince, which is exactly what it smells of, alongside citrus.

Made dry, as rosé, and as sparkling.

Very high acidity and a neutral-to-lemony profile, which makes it a natural sparkling base.

Literally “black.” The most planted red on the island and one of the oldest continuously cultivated vines anywhere — in the 1960s Mavro and Xynisteri alone covered 79% and 19% respectively of the total area under cultivation.

The island’s serious red. Grown in sparse quantities around the island but mostly in the Pitsilia region, it was rediscovered in the 1980s with the revival of small boutique wineries.

“Eye,” from the round berries. Light-to-medium red with fresh acidity, red cherry and a herbal edge; low tannin.

Very deep colour and formidable tannin and acidity — used in small proportions to give backbone to Mavro and Maratheftiko.

“Little John,” so named because the vine was rediscovered in a garden belonging to a man of that name.

The dominant white and the island’s other Commandaria grape.

Recovered and first bottled varietally by Vouni Panayia in the Paphos district.

Thin-skinned and prone to splitting, which is roughly what the name refers to.

“Little cinnamon,” a very old but very rare variety from the Paphos region.

Increasingly seen in skin-contact, lees-aged and lightly oaked versions, which suit its texture well.

The flagship, centred on Vayots Dzor at some of the highest commercial vineyard altitudes in the world, much of it own-rooted and old.

Historically the signature red of the Karabakh region, and much darker and more structured than Areni — high tannin, black fruit and an earthy, savoury weight.

“Victory.” An Armenian-bred variety from the Soviet period rather than an ancient vine.

“Golden berry,” and by consensus the finest Armenian white — grown mainly in Aragatsotn and Ararat.

Grown mainly in Armavir and Ararat.

Handles oak, lees ageing and skin contact well.

“Black maiden,” and unambiguously the flagship.

“Grandmother’s grape,” centred on Nicorești in the Galați area.

A recent variety created by crossing the near-forgotten Negru Vârtos with the Georgian Saperavi, planted in a limited area at Drăgășani in southern Romania.

The other modern Drăgășani red, from the same breeding lineage.

The great sweet-wine grape, confined to the Cotnari vineyard in Moldova.

The “frankincense grape,” and the Romanian expression of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains.

“White maiden.” Cultivated before phylloxera reached the country, described in Romanian ampelography as a white clonal variation of Fetească Neagră originating in the Moldova region, and today grown across most of Romania as well as in the Republic of Moldova and Hungary; synonyms include Leánka, Poama Fetei and Weisse Mädchentraube.

“Royal maiden,” and a genuine 20th-century discovery.

Pink-skinned and aromatic, from Bohotin near Huși in Moldova.

Drăgășani. A selected, improved version of the old Crâmpoșie.

An ancient cultivar grown at Cotnari for centuries — elegant and soft with fresh acidity and a slightly grassy note, yellow in colour and fruity with green apple and peach, but always dry.

Occasionally sparkling.

Prince Ştirbey, with winemaker Oliver Bauer, makes a sparkling rosé from it.

Higher in acidity and more structured than Fetească Albă, with rose petal and jasmine aromatics, sometimes almond over dried apricot, and enough grip to make good medium-bodied whites and excellent sparkling wine.

High acidity, light body, green apple and citrus, sometimes with a saline finish; also used for sparkling.

Officially recognised as Serbia’s indigenous variety, with a history dating to the Middle Ages; once the most widespread grape in the Balkans, it is now the country’s best-rated wine internationally.

Southern Serbia. The Montenegrin variety, giving deep colour, dark fruit and spice.

Northern Serbia, particularly Vojvodina, and related to Prokupac.

A Serbian breeding-programme cross of Cabernet Sauvignon with a local red — sources describe it as a cross of Kadarka and Cabernet Sauvignon, retaining Kadarka’s sour cherry and raspberry with added tannin for ageing, though it is elsewhere given as Prokupac × Cabernet Sauvignon.

A local clone of Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, grown in Serbia for over 500 years and valued for intense floral aromas of jasmine and elderflower with tropical fruit; made in styles from dry and refreshing to sweet.

Widely planted and highly productive, named after the medieval capital of Smederevo, with refreshing acidity and a neutral aromatic profile that suits light everyday wines.

Negotinska Krajina, in the far east near the Bulgarian and Romanian borders.

The Serbian name for Welschriesling, widely planted in Fruška Gora.

Some producers now use it for sparkling and skin-contact wines, which is by far the more interesting direction.

Balanced acidity, floral aromatics and citrus; Maurer and Baša make skin-contact versions.

Some producers now use it for sparkling and skin-contact wines, which is by far the more interesting direction.

The most famous Croatian red, indigenous to central and southern Dalmatia, with the best wines from Pelješac, the south side of Hvar and parts of Brač and Vis.

Primošten and the Šibenik coast, famously grown in dry-stone-walled plots carved into bare karst.

Zinfandel, Primitivo and Crljenak are one variety.

Istria, and shared with Slovenia and Italy’s Friuli, where it is Terrano/Refosco-related.

The Dalmatian hinterland and Herzegovina. Recovered relatively recently and now one of the more talked-about Croatian revivals: deep colour, ripe dark fruit, fine tannin and better balance than many southern reds.

From Čara and Smokvica on the island of Korčula, now planted across Dalmatia.

The most common variety in the country at roughly 4,500 ha, about 23% of total vineyard area.

Istria’s flagship and a distinct variety within the sprawling Malvasia family.

Grown in the sandy topsoil around Lumbarda on Korčula, where the sand allowed it to survive the phylloxera outbreak.

Vrbnik on the island of Krk.

Widespread in Dalmatia. Not strictly native — it is the same variety as Malvasia Bianca Lunga — but very long established.

The Dalmatian hinterland around Šibenik and Skradin.

The island of Vis. Richer and more aromatic than most Dalmatian whites, with apricot and honey and low-to-moderate acidity.

Hvar. The name derives from “God’s grape,” reportedly from its use in church feasts.

Moslavina, in continental Croatia. Light-bodied and floral with citrus and a low alcohol level.

Made in two main styles: light and fruity, or with extended skin contact and oak ageing.

Enormously popular locally; some sparkling versions.

Around 70% of national plantings and the reason anyone outside the Balkans has heard of Montenegrin wine.

Genetically identical to Primitivo, Zinfandel and Crljenak Kaštelanski.

The signature Montenegrin white. Its name comes from the shape of the bunch, which resembles a cross, and it is believed to be autochthonous to Montenegro, probably originating around Beri near Podgorica within a growing area of only 40–50 km.

Northern Albania around Lezhë and Shkodër, named for the village of Kallmet.

Black Shesh. An autochthonous variety originating in Shesh village at about 450 m altitude, where today almost every family grows vines on pergolas in their garden.

The southern coast around Vlorë. Long said to originate in the village of Vlosh, though recent work traces it instead to the village of Narta and its lagoon.

Exists in both red and white forms.

White Shesh, from the same village and the same complex as Shesh i Zi.

Berat, in the centre-south. Revived by wineries including Çobo in Berat, it produces brilliantly golden wines with tropical and stone fruit, pomelo and white flowers, balanced by lively acidity and a creamy, slightly oily texture.

Grown in the Përmet region, notable for high acidity and finesse, and particularly well suited to sparkling wine, which is drawing growing interest among Albanian producers.

Grown in the Përmet region, notable for high acidity and finesse, and particularly well suited to sparkling wine, which is drawing growing interest among Albanian producers.

Written Vranac in Montenegro, Vranec here.

The real indigenous prize. Cultivated since ancient times in the Tikveš region, which holds more than 250 of roughly 300 planted hectares; elsewhere it survives only as scattered individual vines.

Genetically identical to Primitivo, Zinfandel, Crljenak Kaštelanski and Tribidrag.

Domestically the most popular white by some distance.

Herzegovinian in origin but performing well in Macedonian sites.