The well-stocked wine racks of At the Fountain restaurant frame a perfect background for Stephan Delahaye as he samples the 2003 Todoroff Mavrud we have ordered, and relaxes for a conversation about wine.
Delahaye smiles: “Of course, I am French, one of the connoisseurs of wine, and France is a country of reference for wine.”
His first encounters with Bulgarian wine were in the eight years that he lived in London, and he found that especially the reds were “absolutely excellent”.
“This is a region gifted by God to make wine.”
France, he adds, is naturally in another class given its history and its wine culture. “You can drink a wine and match it with the appropriate kind of cheese. And the wine; that unforgettable taste and feeling that have made the reputation of French wine.”
Delahaye, who has been in the country for three years and heads up the Euro RSCG agency here, and is vice-president of the French chamber of commerce, says that Bulgarian wines are superb for everyday drinking, and when wine shopping here, in the same 20 to 30 leva price range, he will choose a Bulgarian wine.
However, he says that one of the main difficulties for Bulgarian wine is that the quality is inconsistent from one bottle to the next.
Going by events like wine exhibition Vinaria, he says that he is confident that Bulgaria can catch up to international standards.
It is a challenge that the Bulgarian market is very small and a terrain for stiff competition among domestic producers. “To live, a Bulgarian producer needs to export, and that is a big problem”.
“I am a big fan of Bulgarian wine, but unless a massive export market is found, a lot of companies will struggle.”
I ask Delahaye what would be, in advertising industry parlance, Bulgarian wine’s “USP”: Unique Selling Point. He gazes thoughtfully into the distance for a long time. I realise that I have asked for free what would be very valuable to a lot of clients.
He speaks: “Be straightforward - cheap and quality. That’s the USP. Price and quality. South Africa, California, have much more sun and their wines develop in a different way. Here you have a cheap to middle-range priced wine that also offers quality.”
We turn to the subject of changing tastes and trends in various countries.
“Today in France, the trend is moving to white wine. Where the English or even Bulgarians might drink beer, the French are drinking wine; white wine as an aperitif, white wine with an appetizer and with fish.”
I put to him the thesis that Bulgarian wine of quality is over-priced for the domestic market, yet sold for too cheap a price in foreign markets.
Delahaye responds that a country’s wine need branding, like “Made in France” has become an effective brand.
Tough negotiators at big supermarkets in the West are prepared to take good wine in bulk that they can retail successfully, and that means that producers must accept very low margins. “The big retail chains are killing the wine industry, even in France. Some French producers are struggling to survive.”
The Bulgarian Government, he says, could do a lot more for wine producers, to create a brand “Made in Bulgaria”. This is the only way in which the country’s economy would be enabled to develop, Delahaye says.
