Soli Merlot Miroglio

There's something distinctly right bank about this, with a lovely lift and purity to the fruit and alluring herbaceous aroma. Drinking so well now, with flavour of fresh and baked plums, bracken, brambles and autumn leaves, a hint of umami meat extract and warming, plush palate. As you leave it longer in the glass, it deepens beautifully, suggesting it will keep nicely for a few years. The fine tannins gently caress the palate, and it finishes long and warming.

Edoardo Miroglio, an Italian textile mogul with vineyards in Barolo first came to this area of Bulgaria to sell fabrics and he spotted the immense potential for wine production. After an extensive two-year search for the prime piece of land, they settled on a piece of land on the eastern side of the Thracian Valley, with the Saint Ilia hills shading the area from the freezing Baltic winds whilst a natural lake nearby regulates the temperature. Alberto Le Rosa, who was overseeing the vineyards at one of Barolo's most famous Barolo producers at the time tasted the maiden 2004 vintage and was amazed. This epiphany caused him to up sticks from his Barolo home to oversee the vineyards and he's been there ever since. The vines are now 21 years old, and the quality of fruit just gets better and better. Everything at Miroglio is done to the best of their abilities with state-of-the-art equipment.

This attention to detail also extends to the people involved with Miroglio bringing in the incredibly talented Alberto Le Rosa (ex Luciano Sandrone Barolo viticulturist) and Bulgaria's top lady winemaker, Desislava Baicheva, who both only joined the team as they could see the excellent potential of the wines having tasted the earliest vintages. As the vines age and the team gain more insight into the nuances of the Thracian Valley terroir, these wines go from strength to strength.