Gamza/Kadarka

In the 1970s, the fourth largest producer of wine in the world was Bulgaria. Yet, almost nobody in the western world ever tasted it. Bulgaria was part of the so-called Soviet Bloc and it was the primary wine supplier to the former Soviet Union. Today, Bulgaria is not as prodigious a producer of wine, but the quality has improved. 

Today, we are on the Danubian Plain in the north central part of the country, just to the south of Romania where the border is formed by the Danube, west of the Black Sea and east of Serbia. The trip to get here was not easy. We flew into the capital city of Sofia, not an easy feat on its own and meandered our way, through, around, and over the Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains) that runs east/west throughout the entire country. The Danubian Plain sits to the north of those mountains, a somewhat unusual configuration for a northern hemisphere wine region.

We're here today to drink wine from a grape known as Gamza by the locals and Kadarka in Hungary. While Bulgaria's wine production was almost exclusively for the Soviet Union, the western world's primary exposure to the grape was through Egri Bikaver, a Hungarian red blend known in the lore as Bull's Blood, so named because the invading soldiers upon seeing the eyes of the Magyar warriors thought their eyes looked like they were filled with the blood of wild bulls.

Despite the terror induced by the description, Gamza does not produce a big, bold red wine. Likely having originated in the Balkans, it loves cool weather, actually more so even than Pinot Noir. Thus, being shielded from the southerly breezes by Stara Planina makes sense. It keeps the weather on the Danubian Plain cool whereas the grapes grown in southern Bulgaria to the south of those mountains are shielded from the cooler weather to the north.

The wines themselves are medium-bodied. Its most prominent fruit note is pomegranate, perhaps followed by red currants. While a bit peppery and somewhat floral often brimming with hibiscus petals, the most distinctive notes are the dried herbs and baking spices. And, in fact, these notes are so prominent that your choice of glassware matters.

Find yourself a bottle of Gamza (it's not expensive) and try an experiment. Take a taste in what you might think of as a traditional red wine glass and another in a Burgundy/Pinot Noir glass. If you don't find that the Gamza is more expressive in the Pinot glass, I'll drink the rest for you.

Gamza is a great fall wine. Drink it with mushrooms, root vegetables, and roast lamb. And, for all the people who can't wait for the trendy places to change their menus for the fall and need something to go with roasted pumpkin or pumpkin pie, the baking spices that are so strong in Gamza go perfectly. There never should have existed pumpkin lattes; drink Gamza instead.