When I was invited to write the introduction to the Catalogue of Bulgarian Wine 2013 I was not sure what to expect of this new encounter. As a matter of fact, this is not a dry collection of numbers and dull information. This catalogue is a serious and intriguing piece of work, targeted at a wide, yet well informed audience - business people with a particular interest in wine, traders and professionals in this field, connoisseurs, tourists curious about wine...

Tzveta’s and Katia’s compilation breaks ground for those interested in Bulgarian wines, wherever they live and whether or not they read Cyrillic. These two pioneers have, in one very concise book, compiled an impressive quantity of data quali- fied by smart opinions coupled with practical wine tips.

Before I get to the heart of the matter, their advice at the introduction of the book cannot be missed, even for the cynical wine lover who has already experienced...enough. Frankly, I’ve never see in any book - no matter how ambitious, pretentious, or laid-back - discuss how to choose wine glasses not to break your heart (when they actually break) and how to wash those that will, along with a hearty dose of other important tips. A fine one is how stemmed glasses can tip in the wind on a picnic outside...the suggestion being to get over your fingerprints on a stemless glass. I appreciated, and had never considered, the suggestion that the price of the bottle should be a baseline indicator for the price of the glass in which it is served.