Bulgaria's Wine Exports Grows 21% in 2007

Bulgaria's wine exports have registered a significant growth in 2007.


During the first nine months of 2007 Bulgaria exported 857 000 hectoliters of wine, which was a 21% increase compared to the same period of 2006 (711 000 hectoliters).

Almost 80% of the exported wines were bottled, and the rest were in bulk. The total wine production in 2007 amounted to 138 million hectoliters. A total of over 200 000 tons of grapes were used for their production.

Russia is the number one destination for bottled Bulgarian wines with 68% of all exports. It is followed by Poland, the UK, and the Czech Republic.

Russia is also the number one market for bulk Bulgarian wines with 65%, followed by Germany, Moldova, and Sweden.

Pros' guide to bargain shopping, Chez Panisse

Pros' guide to bargain shopping - link


Jonathan Waters

Wine Director, Chez Panisse

Strategy: Great values from sustainable, small producers

The hits: 2006 Targovishte Traminer, NV Dibon Cava

The miss: 2007 Calina Carmenere

First, a bit of disclosure on Jonathan Waters' hand up. For his quest, I directed him to the Berkeley Bowl Marketplace, where it turned out he already knew wine buyer Simon Ball and scored recommendations before we went shopping.

This actually bolstered his first bargain-hunting tip: Get to know your wine buyer. With more Bay Area supermarkets hiring wine stewards and individual buyers, personal recommendations should be ever easier to get. "If you go home and you don't like any of the wines, then the strategy hasn't worked," Waters said. "But at least it's a good place to start."

To convert our $70 into eight wines and pocket change, Waters employed other tricks up his sleeve, which to be fair is precisely what you need when diving into the bargain-wine sea. He already knew his sparkling pick, the NV Dibon Cava Brut Reserve ($8.99), since he has been pouring it at Chez Panisse. And he steered our cart toward wines from less prestigious Old World areas, including Eastern Europe.

That's how we ended up with the day's surprise hit: a 2006 LVK Vinprom Targovishte Traminer ($8.99) from Bulgaria, a relative of Gewurztraminer that offered pillowy peach and orange highlights atop a minerally, barely off-dry base. Waters suggested serving it with spring vegetables or a cheese course.

When Trentadue Winery hired new winemaker Miro Tcholokov,

YOU MUST CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO *****



When Trentadue Winery hired new winemaker Miro Tcholokov, the wines he made immediatly recieved critical acclaim. Miro's wines were so good the folks over at Trentadue Winery didn’t know what to do with them! Known for affordable, everyday drinking wines that sold between $10 and $20 a bottle, the new wines were so good they had to start a reserve line-up (called La Storia) and raise the prices in order to keep them in stock.

Miro took a stable, consistent producer of good wines and turned them into a major player in the high-end spectrum of age worthy-collectable wines. Tretadue wines compete with the best wines in Sonoma County, Napa and abroad. You can learn more from Miro in 10 minutes than you can learn from most people in a lifetime. One of the more entertaining and funny winemakers you'll ever meet, he is always willing to spend time with you and talk about wine or anything else. All this at a winery with incredible facilities and a staff that is always helpful. it's small wineries like Trentadue that make Sonoma County so special. Where else in the world can you just walk into, meet and shoot the breeze with a superstar winemaker?

- Rick Raiffini

Compound in Red Wine Fights Ravages of Age

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, July 3, 2008; 12:00 AM


THURSDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- A key compound in red wine known as resveratrol appears to protect against many of the health ravages associated with growing old, new animal research reveals.

"It's very hard to extrapolate from this finding to comment on the benefits of red wine directly, because red wine has many other compounds besides resveratrol, including ethanol, which have very active biological effects," noted study author Rafael de Cabo, unit chief of the laboratory of experimental gerontology at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore.

"But red wine is a good source of resveratrol," he added. "And, in this mouse study, we have shown that this particular compound has very strong positive effects on preventing cardiovascular disease, reducing heart inflammation, keeping bone health in terms of structure and function, and maintaining loco-motor and balance activity. So, if these effects translate into humans, it will have a very good impact on the standard of human health."

De Cabo conducted the research with David A. Sinclair, of Harvard Medical School. Their team is publishing its findings in the July 3 online issue ofCell Metabolism.

Daily consumption of the compound -- also found in the skin of grapes and the crust of peanuts and walnuts -- broadly improved the long-term quality of life of middle-aged mice, although most mice did not end up living longer.

Nevertheless, the age-defying health benefits of resveratrol closely mimicked those previously associated with rigorous calorie-restricted diets -- raising hopes for simpler and easier means by which to help fight off age-related decline.

The authors noted that prior research has touted the healthy benefits associated with daily caloric restriction of between 30 percent and 50 percent below average, as well as with fasting every other day. Such diets have been linked to a reduction in the risk for age-associated disease and stress, alongside a slowing of age-related functional decline.

"But we can't have half of America going permanently on a diet," said de Cabo. "We just can't do it. It's not practical, and it's not going to happen."

Alternatively, he and his colleagues began to explore the potential of resveratrol -- a compound that has already been shown to extend the lives of yeast, worms, flies and fish.

In initial studies, the team found that consuming the compound did improve the health and survival of obese mice -- despite consuming a high-calorie diet.

To follow up, the researchers now compared the health and life spans of middle-age mice given either a standard diet or a calorie-restricted diet, with or without high or low daily dosages of resveratrol.

De Cabo and his colleagues found that resveratrol had the same positive impact on mouse livers, muscles, hearts and bones as calorie restriction alone.

FULL ARTICLE HERE