Before Khan Krum, there was Tsar Bourebist (84 to 44 BCE). One, like the other, had ruled that consumption of alcohol should be limited. In the case of Khan Krum (803-814), along with his directive for a dry nation, we have legend.
And legend has it that there was this lion, which had escaped from the the khan’s zoo-garden, and it would go around terrorising people. One day, a woman’s son returned home, on leave from his military career. Like any good mother, she made sure to feed that boy well. In addition, she had been a little naughty: going against the khan’s order for his people, she’d not uprooted all her grapevines,but kept some to make wine for private consumption. Having a bit of a fancy for the tipple himself, her son downed what she poured for him with pleasure. And his eyes began to sparkle; and his muscles grew like boulders; and his carriage was one of brawn and fright. At that very moment, he heard a sound. The lion!
Rushing into the street, he found himself eye to eye with the beast, its mouth wide open in a roar. One, two, three hits and the boy had beaten the lion into submission. It ran away home, leaving the citizens in peace.
Then fear overcame the lad: the lion belonged to the khan!
Yet the khan recognised the boy’s good deed, and called him to enter into his presence to be declared a hero. Some falsehoods and complications later, the boy did appear before the khan, and ended up telling him whence his might came. For his honesty and bravery, Khan Krum lifted the prohibition on wine, calling on the people to drink wisely, and they lived happily ever after.
The lad’s name was Mavrud.
Mavrud (мавруд) is a native Bulgarian grape varietal, dating back to the time of the Thracians. It is most commonly grown in the Assenovgrad region, though the area around Pazardjik also produces grapes fitting for wine.
Naum Simov, research and projects department manager at the National Wine and Spiritous Beverages Research Institute, said that one of its characteristic is that it is one of the few red wines that does not change its original quality, meaning that it does not really age, so a mavurd that’s been in the bottle for 30 years has kept most of its qualities, its bouquet, its strength. “It’s particular to the variety,” he said.
It grows in broad clusters, wider at the stem end and with both compact and semi-compact bunches of berries, depending on the exact strain. The average weight of a cluster is about 400 grammes. A thick, waxy, blue-black skin on the spherical grapes covers a juicy interior, which is pleasantly sweet and has a good freshness.
Moderately prolific, it is resistant to grey rot and is not overly susceptible to powdery mildew, though it does not hold up well in frigid winters. It takes grafts well on vine rootstocks Berlandieri x Riparia Kober 5 BB and SO4.
As a later-harvested variety – in the Plovdiv-Assenovgrad region, grapes are ripe for harvest in the middle of October – the success of mavrud depends on autumn weather.
In good years, grapes can have a sugar content of 25 to 26 per cent, Bogdan Mandjoukov, also of the wine research institute, said. “This year has been very nice so far; it should be a magnificent harvest,” he told The Sofia Echo.
Once in the bottle, an alcohol content of 13 to 14 per cent is ideal.
Also known as kachivela in various patois, mavrud covers about 3000 hectares of planted vineyards in Bulgaria. This is up from about 2000 ha in the 1990s. According to the Inventory of Main Vine Varietals, as of December 31 2006, there were 135 760 100 ha of total planted vineyards in Bulgaria.
Manjoukov said that mavruds from the Assenovgrad region tend to be more aromatic wines, differing from their Pazardjik counterparts due to climate and soil. Or terroir. The soil around Assenovgrad tends to be more clayey, with more carbonates, while the soil around Pazardjik is richer and more granitic, with less carbonates.
For the glass, mavrud is a sturdy, complex wine, taking well to ageing in oak barrels. Ruby-coloured and rich-looking, it has a nose of forest fruits, toasted nuts and sometimes cinnamon, smoke or figs. In the mouth it is dry and slightly tannic, tending to have a not-too-short finish.
And to get first-hand experience of a variety of mavruds, a wine fair is the ideal place to take a taste.
From November 14 to 17 at the Inter Expo Centre in Sofia, the annual Salon de Vin will be held. Unlike Plovdiv’s Vinaria, it aims directly at consumers and wine consumption and appreciation. More than 30 companies in the Bulgarian, French, Greek and Italian wine industries will be represented.
