Dentist Dr Stefan Angelov was inspired to start a winery and was encouraged by his friends, Bulgarian monks from the ’Sveta Gora’, Mount Athos monastery, who shared his dream for a ’purely Bulgarian wine’. And so, Malkata Zvezda, which means ’Little Pentacle’ in Bulgarian, was founded in 2005 in the village of Kolarovo by Dr Angelov and his associate Mr Georgiev, and is now owned by them and Nikolai Ivanov and Marcus Waich. In front of the winery, the crossroads, now a mini roundabout, forms a five-pointed star shape, an ancient crossing of commercial roads; in the distant past, Thrace was an important place for trade and Thracian wines were known throughout the ancient world.
The winery building itself, constructed of naturally green stone, dates back to the late eighties, when it was built as a workers’ hostel, although it was never used for this purpose. It has been a restaurant and a cheese factory, and now it’s a winery. A half-constructed skeleton of a building stands nearby, it was supposed to be a hotel, but sadly the corridors were deemed too narrow and thus permission was not granted. So there it stands, empty, waiting.
Gleaming steel tanks sit outside under the trees, the winery itself is really quite small and there are only two rooms inside where the whites are fermented in stainless steel. The naturally cool room where the cheeses were previously aged is now full of about 100 French, US and Bulgarian barrels with wine maturing inside. There is an old well with a wooden cover located in the middle of the floor, so you need to be careful not to fall in if it’s not covered properly – there is a bit of a gap. They had quite a surprise when they uncovered the well and found it contained 300kg of aged cheese. A perfect combination!
Their ten hectares of vineyards located close to the winery are mainly planted with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Mavrud, and they buy in further grapes from within 12km of the winery. They are one of the few wineries to use the local grape, Pamit, a light-coloured black grape, which they use in their rosé blend. They also make a fruity red from it blended with Merlot. In the past, we were told, it was actually used to make white wine.
Their top Mavrud, named Sveta Gora, is drunk every year on St George’s day at the monastery. As I would not be able to enter the monastery to enjoy it with them, women are not allowed inside, I was happy to have the chance to try the 2013 here, a lovely full-bodied wine bursting with ripe fruit and spice. So, not only we, but also the monks who encouraged Dr Angelov are able to enjoy the fruits of his labour every year. As winemaker Svilen Georgiev says, “we are creating new traditions”.
