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

Lucia Comnes sings a traditional Bulgarian folk song called 'Izgreyala Yazna Zvezda.' The lyrics describe a young woman who is so beautiful that she is mistaken for a bright star shining in the sky. Lucia is an American singer and violinist from San Francisco, California, who has studied Bulgarian folk music with many great singers, including Tzvetanka Varimezova and Kremena Stancheva.  From 2002-2004 she sang with the women's Balkan vocal group - Kitka - in Oakland, California ( www.kitka.org ).  She also composes songs, performs songs in many other languages and plays a lot of traditional Irish music.  Learn more here: www.luciacomnes.com This film was produced by Vance Petrunoff and filmed by Tamarind Free Jones  in Hercules, California, in June 2012.

This article was published in The 30 Second Wine Advisor on Friday, May. 20, 2011 and can be found at http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor2/tswa20110520.php . If you grew up during the Cold War, chances are that you think of Bulgaria - if you think of it at all - as one of those sad Slavic countries held behind the Iron Curtain, a drab and poor dictatorship, not a likely destination for travel or exports. If you looked closely at the labels of cheap wines in the bargain bins during the 1980s, you might have recognized Bulgaria on the label of some inexpensive, decent but forgettable table wines. (Many of them were exported by the Pepsi-Cola company, not that Pepsi made any real effort to publicize this.) Since the Eastern Bloc fell apart in the early 1990s, unfortunately, Bulgaria wasn't one of the first to bounce back. Its old collectivized wine industry, now independent, sent a lot of bulk wine to Britain, but it wasn't memorable wine. But a recent tasting of wines from...

The Ambassadors' Reception was a success, and thank you all for coming. In this photo H.E. Elena Poptodorova, Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to the United States and H.E. James Warlick, Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of Bulgaria, and Vance Petrunoff

Bulgarian Master Vintners joined the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, as an Associate Member to help better their business and show their support for the wine and spirits industry in the US. Please visit us at the WSWA’s 67th Annual Convention & Exposition April 6-8, 2010 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

I had a rather long and busy weekend, starting on Friday, February 29th with my 13th REAL birthday celebration (hint - leap year baby) YEAH BABY! To cut the story short, by Saturday evening, my guests from Hollywood land, and Ruth and I were slowing down when I remembered the slogan Lance Cutler had on his old Christmas card - In case of an emergency, start with the oldest vintages first. I searched in my wine storage and we uncorked the last bottle in my possession of 1987 Menada Cabernet Sauvingon & Merlot Special Reserve. This was the first wine I imported and it brought me in the wine business for good or bad. The wine was still well alive, with dark ruby, very little brick coloring and well concentrated berry, very noble flavors. It was even tight for a 21 years old wine, which was old enough to drink itself as Ruby stated eloquently. The rest of the leftovers from the old Menada winery in my storage are few bottles of 1991 Menada Cabernet Sauvingon Special Reserve, winner of ...