Local tradition has it that the only good wine is a red wine. With its first Bulgarian Wine of the Year competition, Bacchus, the Bulgarian magazine for wine and fine dining culture, has, in a way, set out to find if such is really true.

From October 1 2007 to September 15 2008, all registered Bulgarian wineries and winemakers were invited to submit what they consider their top blends and vintages of any style and made of any grape variety - as long as the wine was made on Bulgarian territory from grapes grown in the country according to legal norms.

To participate, the wines had to have appeared on the Bulgarian market between October 1 2007 and October 1 2008, and also to have been sent to Bacchus for evaluation (100-point scale) as part of the magazine's monthly Degustation rubric, having been published in the rubric between issues 98 and 109.

Wines that were rated above 85 points over the course of the year went on to the first step of competition tastings, held on October 21 to 23 2008. The blind tastings were done by a panel of oenologues, sommeliers, wine merchants, restaurant industry representatives and wine lovers, which selected the top 50 wines from the more than 250 originally submitted.

Evaluation criteria included price-quality ratio, individual character and overall impression of a given wine. So as to allow for a wider selection of top-classed wines, a single winery could have no more than four wines in the top 50.

Interesting to note is that, from among the top 50, there was no wine priced under 10 leva: the lowest-priced bottles were 12 leva (the 85-point Minkov Brothers syrah 2007 by Sis Industries and the 86-point EM Blanc de Noir 2007 by Edoardo Miroglio).

Yet, there was not much difference overall in the first-round scores: there were only five wines that came in with 90 points or more (Roto 2006 by Terra Tangra, 91 points, 57 leva; Santa Sarah Privat 2006 by Santa Sarah, 90 points, 48 leva; Solitaire Elenovo merlot 2006 by Domaine Boyar, 90 points, 50 leva; Enira Reserva 2006 by Bessa Valley, 90 points, 42 leva; and Chateau De Val sauvignon blanc 2007 by Chateau de Val, 90 points, 24 leva).

The most expensive classed wine was Dux 2003 by Valley Vintners, with 89 points, for 70 leva.

The top 50 wines now go on to the second round, from which the top 20 will be selected, with the announcement being published on October 28. Here, wines will be rated using a three-step process: 50 per cent of the rating comes from a panel comprised of oenologues and sommeliers, 25 per cent comes from wine merchant and restaurant industry representatives; and 25 per cent from vinophiles who are not connected to the wine industry, but who possess specific knowledge of the field.

In the final round, along with the points granted, wines will be evaluated by criteria including what is called the X-factor, in other words, that "special something" that just makes a wine too good to forget. In addition will be taken into account how the wine is produced: wines produced in enormous quantities and wines produced in very limited series, ie, of some 500 bottles, will not be tolerated, Bacchus wrote in the competition guidelines.

This also means that, when announced in the beginning of November, the wine chosen as Bacchus' Bulgarian Wine of the Year could be one other than the top rated.

The goal of the Bulgarian Wine of the Year competition is to encourage the production, trade and responsible consummation of quality Bulgarian wine.