🥃 Karlovo Grape Rakia (Karlovska grozdova rakya)

Karlovo Grape Rakia (Карловска гроздова ракия) is an EU-protected geographical indication for a Bulgarian wine spirit from the municipalities of Karlovo and Sopot in the Rose Valley, Plovdiv Province. It is distilled from unfiltered wine without pomace, half of it Misket Cherven, in an 18-metre NM-72 copper still to 65% vol.; strength from 40% vol.

The vineyards lie in the villages of Moskovets, Anevo, Karavelovo and Prolom, with 262 ha of vines. This is the north of the Karlovo basin at about 380 m: the average temperature is 11.4 °C and rainfall 653 mm a year. The other half of the raw material comes from Traminer, Chardonnay and Muscat in varying proportions, depending on the aromatics of the harvest.

The must is cooled to 14–16 °C and ferments at no more than 18 °C. Unaged rakia is colourless, with an aroma of grapes, green apple and fig. The aged version is made from spirit that has spent six years in barrels of up to 500 l. For longer ageing the file names different woods: 12 years, smoked Balkan oak; 15, black locust; 18, cherry; 21, mulberry; 25, Balkan oak. Methanol is limited to 20 g/hl of absolute alcohol.

Distillation has been known in the Rose Valley since the sixteenth century, when rose oil began to be produced there. In 1927 the Karlovski Misket cooperative was considered one of the most modern in the country. Average output is 24,000 l a year; the name was approved by Order No. T-RD-27-19 of 27 November 2013.

Why it matters for you. Colourless Karlovo rakia is drunk as an aperitif, the aged one as a digestif; the file advises letting it warm slightly to room temperature. WHO reminds us: there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.