The Ultimate Selection Of Wines From Bulgaria
Welcome to Callistra Corp.
We are a US importer of exclusively Bulgarian wines.
We offer a selection of wines from Bulgaria -- from the readily available and easy-to-access to some of the rarest and most exclusive. Many come from indigenous grapes such as the delicate Misket, the powerful Mavrud, the elegant Gamza, or the distinctive Melnik. One trait unites them all – every wine is delicious, interesting, and something you have never tasted before. And yet the wines offer the unmistakable class that you expect from the Old World, a place with several millennia of wine-making traditions.
How did we choose these wines? We partnered with the Tresor Vinum Wine Club from Bulgaria, a company of seasoned professionals, wine-tasters, and winemakers, who have tasted thousands of wines over the last 10 years. They offered us the crème de la crème of the Bulgarian wine scene. We share with you our discovery. It’s time to start exploring the last undiscovered wine world of Europe. We promise you it will be an exhilarating experience.
Bulgarian Old World Wine
Bulgaria, the last unknown wine gem of the Old World, is a small country in South-Eastern Europe. It is endowed with a a wealth of cooler climates — the key to producing fine wines and native vinous treasures. Many famous wine regions such as Bordeaux and Tuscany in Europe share the same latitude as the wine regions of Bulgaria. Yet Bulgaria is also distinctly different, with a unique terroir, indigenous varieties and millennia-old wine traditions.
These traditions go back to the times of the very first winemakers. It is an elusive and difficult task to find who made wine for the first time. Yet most scientists agree that the story of wine begins somewhere in the lands around the Black Sea, one of the earliest spots for wine culture in human history.
As everything great and significant in their world, wine required its own god. So firmly ingrained was the wine idea into this early civilization that two special deities were responsible for it — Zagreus, the lord of the sun, wine, and jubilation, and Zelanos, the supernatural power that breathed magic into wine.
The ancient Thracians, who inhabited the territories of what is today Bulgaria, laid the foundations of a unique wine civilization.The Thracians believed wine to be a gift from God and revered it in both everyday life and religious rituals. We know the staggering extent of their worship from numerous artifacts and the written heritage of their ancient neighbors, the Greeks.
Today, long after the glory days of the Thracian civilization, wine remains the incredible living link between us and our artistic ancestors. Never before has this vital connection — the link between fruit and land, between taste and place — been stronger. Our wines' very DNA is encoded in that beautiful corner of the world. Two things stand for this genetic heritage — the characteristics of the unique location of the vineyard and the mastery of the winemakers, perfected during centuries of creative toil.
Our Partners
Our partner BgWineMark in Bulgaria, led by experienced winemakers
who are members of the Tresor Vinum wine club, provides us with established relationships and logistics expertise to export high-quality Bulgarian wines efficiently to the US market.
With brand authorization from over ten Bulgarian wineries,
Callistra works with a US-based logistics company for timely and efficient
delivery of our wines.
The following are some of the wineries
working with Callistra.
Zelanos Winery
Zelanos winery is in the Rose Valley, a beautiful place where the best rose oil in the world is produced. We meticulously care for 70 ha of own vineyards with the indigenous white Misket and the classic Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah.
To reflect the character of the land, we interfere as little as possible in the natural journey from grape to wine. In the vineyard the grapes are harvested entirely by hand. By selecting the most healthy and ripe bunches and, if necessary, repeating the process in a few days, we give the rest of the grapes enough time to fully ripen. Only triple-sorted grapes enter the fermentation tanks. This uncompromising philosophy goes into the wine-making itself with minimal handling and treatment so that the wine may sound natural in the bottle. This is our way of producing the best wine possible.
In our state-of-the art winery we make 10 wines in two series — Zelanos and ‘Z’. The wines are very elegant, displaying great mineral finesse, balance, texture, and compelling aromas and flavors. We believe that these wines are one of the many beautiful facets of genuine Bulgarian wine-making.
Stratsin Winery
The Black Sea region sets a record of rich turbulent history and remarkable wine traditions. We have chosen the beautiful Stratsin Winery, located near Pomorie, revered as the center of the best white grapes terroirs in Bulgaria. Winter is mild, autumn is long and warm, summer is never too hot, and spring is cool. The constant breeze from the sea and the proximity of the Balkan mountains favor prolonged ripening and accumulation of complex flavors. The 30 hectares near the Black Sea are based around family vineyards that belonged to the grandparents of the current owners. The vineyards are on sandy, superbly drained soils that give the wines minerality and finesse.
Staro Oryahovo Winery
Staro Oryahovo is a family estate, a great representative of the elegant wine style of North-Eastern Bulgaria.
The vineyards are situated close to two dams – Tsonevo and Eleshnitsa. The gentle slopes and mineral-rich soils give the wines a pronounced individual character, with the finesse attainable only in cool climates. The indigenous Bulgarian varieties such as Vrachanski Misket and Varnenski Misket beautifully combine aromatics and elegance, while the international Sauvignon Blanc is delicious, with gorgeous mouth-feel and flint-laden finish.
Midalidare Estate
Midalidare is a dream built on the philosophy of synergy between men and nature. The estate is set at the heart of the gently rolling hills of Sredna gora mountain, in Mogilovo village. Hard work, endurance, respect and great passion are the heart of Midalidare. Terroir is extremely important for the character and quality of the wine. Wine is born in the vineyard: this is the philosophy of Midalidare. That is why vineyard’s management comes first. Modern expression of time-honored winemaking is what makes Midalidare wines unique.
Dragomir Estate Winery
The new wine home of Dragomir Winery Estate is a modern, avant-garde building, which perfectly corresponds to the style of the wines – bold, expressive, individual. The winery is supplied with state-of-the-art equipment and barrels of the highest quality.
Yet, there is more to Dragomir than external appearances. It’s the story of romance and vision of two young winemakers who wanted to change the perception of Bulgarian wines. Nataliq and her husband, Konstantin Stoev, are a couple of trained oenologists who ploughed their fifteen years of experience working for other companies into setting up their own small winery in 2009, becoming partners in business as well as life.
As Nataliq says, “All these years we have been motivated only by the thought of creating wines with a style – with uncompromising quality, revealing the potential of Bulgaria’s micro-regional terroir, vinified with friendly technological practices and mainly produced from local grape varieties, such as Rubin, Mavrud, Dimyat.”
Zagreus Winery
Our choice winery is Zagreus, a master of Mavrud which lies right at the heart of the best Mavrud terroir just south of Plovdiv.
Today Zagreus has 120 hectares, all close to the winery, and since 2013, it has been certified organic. Half the vineyards are planted to Mavrud, the ancient Bulgarian variety, where it’s produced in all styles from white, unusual rosé fermented in acacia barrels, via traditional reds and reserve wines aged in Bulgarian oak, to the much admired Vinica.
Vinica uses grapes dried naturally for a couple of months, before being aged in new oak, giving a totally different face to Mavrud.
Owner Dimitar Kostadinov says, “Mavrud is pale like Pinot Noir unless concentrated. We had to start from the beginning and learn its potential.”
Bratanov Family Winery & Vineyards
We have chosen Bratanov winery as the leading producer of world-class wines representing the South Sakar Region.
Bratanov Family Winery & Vineyards was established in 2010 by a father and his two sons, who embraced the mission to restore the ancestral tradition.
Sustainable approach is applied in growing the vineyards.
Since 2016 Bratanov is the first Bulgarian winery which ferments all its wines with the native microflora from the vineyards or so called wild yeasts. The result is distinctive wines with great character and balance.
Yamantiev’s Winery
Yamantiev’s winery is located in Ivaylovgrad, at the outskirts of the Eastern Rhodopes, southern Bulgaria. The Mediterranean with its ‘white wind’ is only 70 km to the south, with unique effect on the grapes’ aromatics. The area is hilly, with cinnamon-forest soils; the vineyards are entirely own plantations, about 20 years old.
Julian Yamantiev’s story goes back to his ancestors, the Bitanov brothers, who ran a company called Damiat, exporting grapes, wines and brandies to Austria and Germany. He still has certificates for gold medals they won in 1907 in London.
In 1945, the business was confiscated, as Bulgaria started its socialist detour. After things went back to normal in 1991, Julian realized that wine was his destiny.
He worked at various wineries until 1997 to gain experience but says, “We were so ambitious, young and determined that the people calling the shots at the time decided to eliminate us by sending us to a disused winery in Ivaylovgrad. This is how we came to possess a pearl of terroir with unique climate, neatly sandwiched between three national borders. Our land and winery are exactly where the Rhodope mountains hug the ancient Thracian valley. This is really where our story began.”
Logodaj Winery
Logodaj Winery produces iconic wines made from the Melnik grape, both delicious and distinctive. Established in 1994 by three entrepreneurs, the winery is located in the very heart of the Struma river valley, in the village of Logodaj. The vineyards cover more than 700 acres in the beautiful village of General Todorov, near the towns of Melnik and Rupite.
From the very start the aim was to establish an identity for the local grapes. The inspiration of one of the partners, Peter Drosanski, led him to bring on board renowned Italian consultant Riccardo Cotarella, also a believer in saving ancient grape varieties.
As Peter explained, “The problem with Broad-leafed Melnik is that due to its very late ripening, we were finding it difficult to source the highest quality fruit. We were working closely with Murad Ouada (of Cotarella’s team) who suggested that we pioneer the first sparkling Melnik.”
Rupel Winery
Rupel, a family-owned estate, starts a new wine story in a region which is home to very distinctive white and red wines.
Owner Pavel Gramatikov says, ‘I feel this is a place blessed by God for vines’. Pavel is originally from this region, and as with everyone here, his ancestors grew vines.
The winery is named after the Rupel Gorge to the south, which funnels the Aegean climate into the valley. The wines include the fruit-driven Spancha range and more serious oak-matured Grammatik wines, including local varieties plus the more unusual Marselan, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese.
