The Little Things, Part III

There is a small little wine ship I frequent from time to time in the market building close to home. The owner is a short, well-groomed older gentleman who is probably in his late 50s to early 60s. His shop specializes in Bulgarian wines, and over time he has come to know me as one of the regulars, as I am a frequent wine drinker and enthusiast. When I first started purchasing from his shop he was friendly enough, but always gave me exactly what I asked for. As time has progressed, he has begun to suggest wines for me based upon my previous selections. He knows I enjoy Cabernet and Shiraz/Syrah, and regularly suggests different varieties of those.

Today he recommended four different wines for me to try, but I ended up going with a cheaper Cabernet, with the express intent of trying two of the reserves later on this week, or sometime next week. Specifically one of the Melnik reserves and a Cabernet reserve.

However, my "little things" post is not necessarily about the wine, but about the man himself. Here is this unassuming, short-statured and well-groomed man, stick-thin, but extremely friendly. He runs a small wine shop that specifically caters to Bulgarian wines--what I like to call the "hidden treasure" of Bulgaria. The man knows his wines...but he is also a master of languages. My wife and I have seen him speak--fluently nonetheless--five different languages over the course of our trips to his shop: Russian, English, Bulgarian, French, and Italian. I am pretty sure I've heard him speak some German as well, but those are the five we know he can speak with fluency.

It reminds me of the farrier my dad used to use back in the States. (A farrier being a man who shoes horses) That particular man had two doctorates...in philosophy and psychology. Yet he chose to shoe horses for a living, because it's what he enjoyed doing. He pursued his doctorates just to show his family that he was as smart as he claimed he was, but his true passion was in dealing with horses. This man is one of those. He can speak so many different languages, but rather than working for some super corporation making gobs of money, he is quite content to run his little corner wine shop.

Bulgarian wines are just that...a hidden secret. What I like to call "a little thing". In recent years I've been reading some wine reviews that suggest that Bulgaria is going to be the next big wine country to hit the market, because their wines are on par with French and Italian wines in terms of quality, but because the country was under the iron veil of communism for so long, it is just now beginning to come under the spotlight. 2009 is year two of their involvement in the European Union, and people are just now beginning to see all of the little things that Bulgaria has to offer. Personally, I've been coming here for years and have always seen those hidden treasures, one of which happens to be the many wines of the region.

I raise a glass in toast to the little man and his shop, and his five languages. Nazdrave!