Soli Pinot Noir 2021, Edoardo Mirolglio, Thracian Valley

A Bordeaux blend but not quite what you might expect – in a very good way. Plush, expressive and floral like their Pinots but with a fuller, fleshier experience overall. Red and blueberries sprinkled with black pepper and tied together by a slightly savoury grip, there’s so much fun to be had here. This is all about freshness, vibrant fruit and delicious, classy ease.

After searching Bulgaria in the late 90’s for the perfect location for his new textile factory, Edoardo Miroglio quickly fell in love with the country and channeled his Italian winemaking heritage into setting us his own vineyard. He purchased his first plot in 1998 and by 2004 had produced his own vintage.

Bulgaria may seem like an unlikely home for this new venture, until you learn it was once the fourth largest wine exporter on the earth. However due to the communist regime in control until the late 80’s, no bottles reached western shores until vineyard ownership was transferred back into the private sector. This transition was slow and ultimately resulted in a decline in quality and production.

The production of red wines is intended to extract the consistency, which is contained in the skin of the grapes. To achieve this purpose it is necessary to leave the skins to mature into the grape juice during the entire fermentation of grapes. The quality of the process depends on the sophistication of the processing of the skin of the grapes. The production of our red wines is made in the part of our cellar which is built on floors and specially designed this to avoid using pumps during the important processes of crushing and squeezing (extracting). The grapes come from the vineyards at the top floor and after clearing falls directly into the fermentation tank, which is located on the middle floor. Stirring of the skins during the fermentation process is made for the wines produced in Elenovo without any means, but solely with the aid of technology called delestage, which best preserves the delicate skins. The so-called Svinatura is also made without the use of any pumps. The juice and the wine mark free fall in the bath and then in the press which is located in the lowest part of the cellar. The wine mark is pressed to be able to squeeze out the part of the wine juice left in the skin. So, the obtained wine after 2-3 days of decanting is poured into barrique barrels, where it begins the process of aging which prepares the wine for bottling.