Leading importer of premium Bulgarian wines for the United States BulgarianWine.com has set a new standard in recent days, surpassing the US$1 million mark in internet sales of Bulgarian wines, PR Web announced on July 16.

According to PR Web, this figure "illustrates the vastly improved quality of Bulgarian wines over the past decade, as well as the attraction to value-priced high quality wines". It wrote that the the website is "among the highest-rated wine retail websites in the country".

Orders for more than 7100 individual cases overall have led to the high internet sales record.

The Sonoma, California,-based BulgarianWine.com imports vintages from various wineries in Bulgaria, offering labels like VINI, Tcherga, Blue Ridge, Domaine Boyar, Uniqato, Telish, Rose Creek, Slavyantsi, Chateau Karnobat, Chateau Euxinograde, Targovishte, Khan Krum and Todoroff. Wine available feature grapes like the native red varietals mavrud, Melnik, gamza, pamid and rubin, along with the international merlot and cabernet sauvignon, and riesling, gewurtztraminer, muscat, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc.

BulgarianWine.com also deals in sparkling wines from producers Magura and Christa, a few rosés, the rakiya (Bulgarian grappa) brands Peshterska, Slivenska Perla and Pliska, a Peshterska mastika, and the beer Zagorka.

PR Web wrote that orders for VINI-brand wines make up a large percentage of BulgarianWine.com's sales.

BulgarianWine.com owner Vance T Petrunoff fled Bulgaria in 1985 to escape communism. Eventually settling in Sonoma, he held various careers, and in 1995, became president of the Sonoma, California, wine wholesale importer Bulgarian Master Vintners, LLC.

Petrunoff told PR Web that BulgarianWine.com was the main supplier to Bulgarians living in the United States. The wholesaler Bulgarian Master Vintners had even higher sales figures.

According to the 439 customer ratings on Yahoo! Merchant Reviews, BulgarianWine.com deserved its success - its overall rating was 4.5 out of five stars.