On the face of it, Bulgaria's wine producers seem to have many of the elements needed to entice wine lovers: indigenous varieties, unusual blends, relatively low prices and innovative styles such as Rossidi's Orange Gewurztraminer, pictured.
In too many instances, however, the Bulgarian wines I encountered at a recent London tasting didn't maximise this potential. A combination of overripeness and/or overextraction with overt oak influence made the premium examples generically exaggerated rather than specific and engaging, while at the cheaper end, dilute fruit and some instances of faulty winemaking made the wines too bland and/or tired to compete in an...