Before Retirement, Vance Petrunoff Was Selling Bulgarian Wines from Sonoma, CA

It was so much fun last night at Valley Wine Shack and the Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat and Traminer from Targovishte were so well accepted by a very knowledgeable audience. I served the reds first (I love doing things the opposite way) VINI Merlot 2006 and Domaine Boyar Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Reserve, and it worked great since the medium bodied reds were judged before the floral and aromatic Muscat and Traminer. Will do it again and the Valley Wine Shack deserves all the kudos.

July 21, 2009 Oliver Styles A new film that ridicules the world of wine is set to be shown in San Francisco next month after receiving positive reviews from previous screenings. The film, called 'Corked!', is a low-budget spoof documentary, or 'mockumentary', which follows the travails of four different wineries and the people associated with them. Characters in the film include Jerry, the independent winemaker ('eventually, I'll be the hospitality host – if I ever get a tasting room'), the marketing boss ('I certainly don't have to drink wine to sell wine'), Donald, the PR director of a large winery ('this is our provincial Italian courtyard - many people feel it evokes Tuscany...I like to think of it as a French chateau') and Dane, a vineyard manager with a 120dB bird scarer. Locations for the film include Simi winery, Bella vineyard, and the Michel-Schlumberger estate. The film was premiered at the Cannes film festival in France in May...

Host: Location: Sonoma Valley Wine Shack 535 Napa Rd. Sonoma, CA 95476 US When: Wednesday, July 22, 6:00PM Phone: 707-322-003 Vance will pour Dry Muscat, Traminer and Riesling from Black Sea Coastal Region and some Summer Reds from Thracian Valley. This will be the first time a wine country retailer is presenting Bulgarian wines. Please join us for some exotic wine and fun.

July 16, 2009 Sophie Kevany in Lima, Peru The discovery of liquid cocaine in bottles of Bodegas Kohlberg wine has shocked the owners of the 40-year-old winery in northern Bolivia. The narcotic was found during a drugs inspection by customs officers in Bulgaria, at the port of Varna-West. Wines from Vinos Kohlberg are normally exported from Bolivia via the Chilean port of Arica. No Kohlberg wine is currently exported to Chile. 'We export about 10% of our production to the Czech Republic and China, via Chile, but those shipments have not even left yet,' said Herbert Kohlberg, marketing manager at the winery. The Kohlbergs condemned the adulteration of their wines. 'This illegal action is absolutely not what we stand for,' said Lisette Kohlberg. Of the 1020 bottles of Kohlberg wine – 765 litres - discovered by Bulgarian authorities, news agencies reported 714 litres was liquid cocaine. The rest – 68 bottles – was reported to be real wine. The Kohlberg winery is...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The top-performing letter that predicted the Crash of 2008 now predicts a confiscatory Franklin D। Roosevelt-style "bank holiday." But it's surprisingly sanguine about stocks -- in the (very) short term. In its current issue, HSL reports rumors that "Some U.S. embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies; enough to last them a year. Some embassies are being sent enormous amounts of U.S. cash to purchase currencies from those governments, quietly. But not pound sterling. Inside the State Dept., there is a sense of sadness and foreboding that 'something' is about to happen ... within 180 days, but could be 120-150 days." Yes, yes, it's paranoid. But paranoids have enemies -- and the Crash of 2008 really did happen. HSL's suspicion: "Another FDR-style 'bank holiday' of indefinite length, perhaps soon, to let the insiders sort out the bank ...

VERY INTERESTING INTRODUCTION. June 2009 My long-lasting vision is to establish the ultimate Bulgarian wines in one of the finest wine regions in the world, capable of producing Grand Cru quality wines. I strongly believe in organic and biodynamic farming, and we are the first producer in Bulgaria to apply those methods from the very first day we planted our vines. Our project is a challenge and a dream at the same time. The challenge is to be able to produce wines of the highest quality in a specific area of Bulgaria: South Sakar, which, we believe, has great potential and a unique terroir. Our dream is to see a Bulgarian wine on a par with wines from the best sites in the world. Our first harvest in 2008 produced a small portfolio of wines. We produced 150 cases of Rosé and 150 cases of Syrah. The recent trend of hot summers continued in 2008. In July and August we had sixty-three days of extremely hot weather with no rain. We reduced the yield per vine and picked earlier in o...