Chateau Burgozone introduces its Bulgarian wine to China

Source:Global Times Published: 2015-7-13 21:33:01

Emy Marinova presents her wine at an international wine exhibition in Beijing. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

Emy Marinova from Chateau Burgozone in Bulgaria has only been in China for half a year, but she has already begun promoting Bulgarian wine to Chinese people. Like other wine producers, Marinova and her family are captivated by China's fast-growing wine industry and keen on introducing to the people in China a new kind of wine.

As the owner of Chateau Burgozone, which is one of the most renowned wine producers in Bulgaria, Marinova has been taking over the responsibility of spreading her family business outside of Bulgaria. At an international wine exhibition in Beijing in June, she presented her chateau and family-produced wine to Chinese visitors for the first time. Marinova knows that her adventure in China has just started and may not be an easy one.

The vineyards of Chateau Burgozone are spread over an area of 100 hectares, and are situated on the steep slope of the Southern bank of the Danube River, near the town of Oryahovo in Bulgaria. Chateau Burgozone bears the name of the Roman fortress which was situated on the border of the vineyard complex and provided protection to the Roman Empire from the North. Many pieces of ceramic objects dug out of the vineyard can be seen at a local museum of history, adding a strong historical spirit to wine-making for the chateau.

The land itself used to be an old abandoned vineyard for a quarter of a century until Marinova and her family settled there in 2000.

"We renovated it when we moved in, and the land flourished very quickly because the soil was resting and was not being used for 25 years," said Marinova.

Marinova said the grape seeds and roots were particularly selected from France to ensure the quality of their wine. Currently, they have 11 different varieties of wine.

Seventy percent of the wine comes from the grapes at the chateau, so the most important thing for the chateau is treating the grapes well. "We put a lot of attention toward the grapes in terms of selecting quality grapes, limiting the yield and collecting them by hand," she said.

Although the chateau can produce up to 450,000 bottles of wine a year, they currently only produce 250,000 bottles. "We really want to show people that Bulgaria has really good quality wine," Marinova said.

Of all the wines, Marinova said her favorite is the white because she believes the white wine is a more feminine wine.

"At home, my mom, my sister and I take care of the plantation and the wine making process, and we make wine that is more preferable to women in terms of flavor," she said.

After a decade of efforts, the result was encouraging to Marinova and her family. From 2009 to 2014, they have received dozens of medals for wine-making, including a gold medal from the International Wine Contest Bucharest 2012 and a gold medal from The Great International Wine Award Mundus vini 2014.

Although at the moment, the amount of Bulgarian wine being imported to China is very small, Marinova hopes that more Bulgarian wine can be imported to China in the future.

Currently, they are working on building up cooperation with local restaurants to offer wine tastings to Chinese consumers. "My family has an importer in Shanghai, and we are focusing on young people who want to learn more about wine and who are curious to discover new things," Marinova said. 




blog comments powered by Disqus