Eastern Europe is the last undiscovered gem of the wine world. Over the last thirty years three countries, Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova have been working hard to escape the legacy of communism. For all three the regimes that took hold after the Second World War affected their wine industries profoundly, with state farms favouring mechanization and mass production over care and quality. Recent decades have seen a huge switch in attitudes following privatization, with more focus on quality and reconnecting people with the land to rebuild these historic wine industries for today’s wine drinkers. Bulgarian wine’s fall in sales in the West due to the rising popularity of New World wines, Moldova’s economic crisis at the hands of a Russian ban on Moldovan wine and Romania’s need to counter imports from foreign producers as tastes in wine change have forced wineries to rethink their approaches to viticulture and winemaking. Instead of production lines of anonymous wines, makers now focus on creating authentic regional wines using local and international varieties and modern techniques. In The wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, Eastern European wine expert Caroline Gilby MW presents the wine stories of these three connected but distinct countries as one who has witnessed the vast changes as they happened. The cultures of the three countries, their complex and troubled histories and their roads to recovery are profiled here along with details of the geography, climate, grapes grown and, most importantly, the producers working to revive and reinvent their respective wine industries. For those who seek something new beyond the traditional wines of Western Europe or who find New World wines losing their thrill The wines of Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova is an inspirational introduction to a wine world waiting to be explored.

Caroline Gilby MW (1992) worked as a wine buyer for 7 years before starting her own business as a consultant and freelance wine writer in 1995. She writes for Decanter, Harpers and The Drinks Business, as well as Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, The Wine Opus, Oxford Companion to Wine and Wines of the world. She judges regularly at international wine competitions including Decanter’s World Wine Awards and has lectured for the WSET at Diploma level and for OIV’s MSc in Wine Management.