Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo and the moments of home isolation with family

3 minutes read

Maria went to the basement to take wine for lunch and returned with two bottles. One of them was the familiar and lovely Syrah Reserve from Villa Bassarea, vintage 2017. The other one was Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo. Nothing unusual, actually. It is quite predictable that Mimi will pick syrah when sent for wine. And when on the shelf are the bottles of some of her favourite wineries, it is quite probable that she would return with exactly these two bottles.

Actually, it was an interesting pick. These wines may be from different vintages and made by different winemakers, but they still have a lot in common. If I have got it right, the grapes come from the same vineyards.So the terroir is the same and the main differences are in terms of vintage and the winemaker’s work. We have a separate article about the syrah of Villa Bassarea, a wine we love endlessly. But here we will tell you about the Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo.

Little Adriana helps us pick between Syrah Reserve from Villa Bassarea and Megalit Syrah from Chateau Kolarovo
Little Adriana helps us pick between Syrah Reserve from Villa Bassarea and Megalit Syrah from Chateau Kolarovo

That day we were in the mood for adventures and we had decided to cook home-made ravioli with mortadella and cream sauce. So we wanted to try a wine we had not tried before. Indeed, we had some doubts about whether this wine will match with the menu, because syrah from 2013 sounded like a very full and complex wine, more suitable for steaks, for example.

Feeling of coziness – oak, fireplace and dried fruits

With the first sip you close your eyes and imagine a fireplace. Warmth and tenderness. It is not Christmas but in the late March some days can be surprisingly winter-like. And we spend them on our villa. When we think about it, in our whole life as a family we have neves spent so much time together at one place, without travelling somewhere. But, you know, for us travelling is not measured by kilometres but rather by experences. So this day we are heading for an imaginary walk through the green and neat vineyards in the South Sakar mountains, particularly the Chateau Kolarovo vineyards.

Deep aromas of oak and fruits, but fresher fruits, like peach and apricot. Maybe somewhere in the aftertaste we feel dried plums. The feeling is full, but very fine, tender and velvety. Quite unexpected for a wine of this vintage, more than 9 years old.

It is not the first time we say that the wines of Iliana, the winemaker of Chateau Kolarovo, always amuse us. This time, because of the vintage, we expected something very heavy and hard to process. Instead, the lightness with which the aromas touch the nose and the tastes touch the mouth took us to another world. Not to the world of heavy meals and celebrations but rather to a quiet secluded dinner with elegant home-made pasta. Indeed, that was actually what we experienced and Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo was our companion in the following 2 of the many days of home isolation with our family.

The bottle of Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo in our meadow
The bottle of Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo in our meadow

Megalit Syrah 2013 – some facts

The series Megalit consists of wonderful single-variety wines, most of them long-aged in oak barrels and then in bottle. They carry the character of the South Sakar vineyards but also the character of the owner Stoyan Stoyanov and the winemaker – Iliana Koeva. When we visited the winery in 2019 Stoyan told us that his purpose is to make only top-quality wines. The winery is a small one and he has no ambitions to make any mass market products.

The wine we are writing about now is from 100 % syrah, picked on 9 September 2013. It has matured for 18 months in Bulgarian and French oak barrels and bottled on 1 March 2016. The alcoholic content is 13,7 % and the recommended serving temperature is 16-18◦С. It best matches with pastry products, pasta, white cheeses, tender fillets, cream sauces and potato side dishes, as well as game. We actually made a perfect match unintentionally.

A moment of fun instead of finale

The idea of Maria, when she returned with the two bottles of syrah, was to make a tasting and compare the two wines, like the tasting of two Marselan wines we made previously with friends. It would be even more interesting with the two bottles of syrah, because the winemakers of Villa Bassarea and Chateau Kolarovo – Kamen and Iliana, are a family. Anyway, we decided not to open two bottles at the same time because we had no companion and it would be hard for us to drink them both in 2 days. And in no case we wished to waste any of these two wonderful wines.

Two wonderful wines for the cozy days with family - Syrah Reserve 2017 from Villa Bassarea and Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo
Two wonderful wines for the cozy days with family – Syrah Reserve 2017 from Villa Bassarea and Megalit Syrah 2013 from Chateau Kolarovo
Wine:Megalit Syrah 2013
Country:Bulgaria
Variety:100 % Syrah
Vintage:2013
Winery: Chateau Kolarovo
Location:
Kolarovo village, Harmanli, Bulgaria
Price:20 – 25 BGN
Barrel:18 months in Bulgarian and French oak barrels
Serving temperature: 16-18°C

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