By Zina Sorensen & Vasil Zlatev

Bulgaria. Dramatic mountain ranges, alluring beaches, historic towns, picturesque villages and a rich culture. 

Probably known more for its sandy beaches and great value ski resorts, a little known fact about Bulgaria is that wine has been made on the territories of nowadays Bulgaria for over 5000 years, and was a tradition started by the ancient Thracian tribes that inhabited these lands.

I'm going to be honest I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into at the time. Studying and working as a sommelier you get a chance to taste wine from many different wine regions around the world. For some reason Italy as a whole has always been very exciting to me: the history, food, wine, and culture. I remember working in a restaurant where we had wines from all over Italy, but I always got most excited when we could taste wines from the Piedmont region. This region is also a little daunting to truly understand as a sommelier. In terms of yes it is all the same principal grape variety, the Nebbiolo, but the different towns, wine regions within, all the different kinds of producers, and we mustn’t forget the over 200 vineyards which all have a different terrior, soil, and exposure, make for a complex environment. You kind of end up with a head full of stuff! I’m not going to even get started with all the different grape varietals that are native to this area other than Nebbiolo.

Lazenne is absolutely thrilled to be sponsoring and attending the WOWexpo 2016 being held on May 14th at the prestigious Les Roches International School of Hotel Management in Switzerland.

Today we feature a guest post from our friends at Grape Escapes, who organize tours to a number of great wine regions in Europe. We've asked them to share an upcoming wine tour that they're particularly excited about, and in some ways unsurprisingly they chose Champagne, France. Read on to see why Rachel thinks it's so special.