QUEL MARIAGE! Translated from French – what marriage, what a coupage, what a
harmony! This is a dare “rule breaking” coupage of the most typical Bordeaux
(Merlot) and Rhone Valley (Syrah) varieties which is recognised as one of the
best expressions of South Sakar mountain’s terroir for the last decade.

Intensely juicy and rich with aromas of plums, cherries and tobacco. The palate
is surpirigly elegant thanks to a few years in bottle. The fruits have become
darker, with secondary flavours of leather, liquorice and cassis. Tannins are
present, but have nicely mellowed and the finish is long, unctuous and
seductive.

Bratanov family winery is the result of the hard work and dedication of a father
and his sons who embarked on a mission to restore the family wine tradition
after a break of 50 years. The winery’s own 24ha vineyards are located on the
sunny hills of South Sakar near the village of Shishmanovo, Harmanli region –
highly regarded as one of the best terroirs in Bulgaria, and contain the local
Bulgarian varieties Rubin, Mavrud and Tamyanka and the international Merlot,
Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay. Their winery was established in 2010 where
they craft limited batches of wines with minimal intervention, controlling the
whole process from the grapes to the bottle. Cherishing their family traditions,
Bratanov named a few of their wines after their children – Syrah Elitsa,
Chardonnay Beloslava and Rosé Maria. A great asset at their team is the young
oenologist Maria Stoeva, who graduated oenology from the Institut de la vigne et
du vin “Jules Guyot” in Burgundy, France and came back to Bulgaria to practise
her lifelong passion to make terroir driven wines.