How to make Siroka Melniska Bulgarian wine?
Wine matters.
Dinner doesn’t feel complete without a proper glass of fine red wine. That’s what I tried to explain to my father when I went to visit him a couple of weeks ago and asked for some homemade wine but he had the audacity to tell me that it’s not ready yet. That experience made me realize that I took my wine for granted and I didn’t really put much thought into the difficult process and art of making the so called elixir of life.
On that wineless night, I thought about the first time I tried this magical drink. I was 13 years old when I went on a trip with my family to Melnik, a city famous with its rich Siroka Melniska wine. One glass of that ruby red drink was enough to make me fall in love.
But how is this precious elixir made? You are about to find out thanks to Vladimir Simeonov’s article, Craftsmen: True wine is made only from grapes, published in Standard. In the article, Iliya Gurchev, a winemaker in Melnik, shared his knowledge on the whole process.
First, and most importantly, you need a lot of red grapes. The traditional Broadleafed Melnik grape ripens late and is harvested as late as October. When it’s harvested it goes through sorting — it is being cleaned from leaves and stems. Then, a special machine crushes the grapes without their bitter seeds. If you thought that people crush the grapes with their bare feet, you were wrong. We were all misled by those old-fashioned commercials on TV.
Second. After the grapes have released their juice, called must, it’s being transferred to the primary fermentation container. This container can be wooden or from plastic. In both cases, it should be cleaned with fig leaves or caustic soda beforehand. This should be done in order to kill the microorganisms that could infect the wine.
Third. If the grapes have low sugariness, granulated sugar can be added. However, the real traditional Melnik wine is made without additional sugar or coloring.
Step four. In a day or two, the fast fermentation begins. Some people put artificial yeast — activators of alcoholic fermentation. They speed up the process of converting sugars into alcohol and help the wine clear up. Melnik winemakers say that no matter how modern the technology is every ingredient, after all, contains additives. Therefore, it is best to let the wine ferment on its own. This process produces a large amount of carbon dioxide, which pushes all the seeds and flakes to the surface and forms a hat at the opening of the barrel. It is best if the hat is a bit submerged which can be achieved by pressing it down with a wooden plank, which is also called a false bottom.
Step five. During the fast fermentation, it is crucial to stir the must every day, to let oxygen to enter the barrel, so that the yeast to breath and let out carbon dioxide. It is recommended to move the wine to another container after the fast fermentation, where the silent fermentation begins, which continues for about a month. The new container must be closed and there must be a little hose, submerged in a jar filled with water, where oxygen should be released.
Final step. After the silent fermentation, comes the first racking (siphoning the wine off the sediment periodically), which requires access to fresh air for the wine to breathe. The product of this process is the first clear wine, which is ready to be bottled.
“Good barrels, high quality grapes and good hygiene are enough for real wine. It, of course, has to be consumed with much love. Only then it is truly appreciated,” says Iliya Gurchev, a true Melnik winemaker.
Hristina Hadzhiyska is a 21 years old, third-year student at the American University in Bulgaria, majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication. She chose this topic because she is a true wine lover and would like to make her own wine, one day, just like her father.
