2022 Georgiev-Milkov - Mavrud Thracian Valley Novi Izvor Vineyard (750ml)

Petar Georgiev and Radostin Milkov, two longtime friends and certified oenologists, met working at wineries across Austria, New Zealand, and beyond before joining forces in 2014 to launch their own Bulgarian project. Rather than owning vineyards, they work closely with trusted growers around Plovdiv, focused entirely on indigenous varieties like Mavrud and Rubin. Their minimal-intervention approach, hand-harvesting, spontaneous fermentation, and native oak aging, has quickly made them one of Bulgaria's most talked-about producers.

Novi Izvor is a single 300-decare parcel near Assenovgrad, considered the historic birthplace of the Mavrud grape and the largest planting of the variety in the Plovdiv region. The vines were planted between the late 1970s and early 1980s at around 280 meters, on deep cinnamon forest soils at the foot of the Rhodope Mountains, where good airflow helps keep the fruit healthy. Grapes are hand-harvested and carefully selected, then fermented spontaneously in temperature-controlled steel tanks before aging ten months in a combination of Bulgarian and French oak barrels.

The wine pours a medium ruby with an attractive luster, opening to aromas of blueberry, black currant, plum, and sweet spice. The palate is well balanced, with generous berry fruit wrapped around firm tannins and vanilla, nutty undertones. Pour it with grilled lamb kebabs, slow-cooked Iberian pork, or a rustic sheep's milk cheese.