On my recent trip to Bulgaria, I visited the wonderful RKL Distillery, located in the village of Bial Briag.
RKL Distillery is small, but has extensive, beautiful organic fields of herbs such as Lavender, Melissa, Yarrow and St John’s Wort.
One of the three owners of RKL, Alex, graciously met us at the airport in Varna, Bulgaria, and spent the next three days with us. Alex took us to his distillery in Bial Briag and another distillery he supports called Little Arcadia, owned by his friends Antonina and Ivan, in Kipilovo village. Both distilleries are located in extraordinary old villages full of history and character.
We spent the first day in Varna, a coastal town along the Black Sea that reminded me of all the wonderful villages I love so much in France--outdoor cafes serving incredible food, people out on the cobblestone streets late into the night, and street performers playing music! What could be better?
The next day we drove for a few hours through huge fields of sunflowers in full bloom to Alex's distillery. RKL Distillery is located in an old stone building in a very charming, ancient village. We met Georgi, his distillery manager, who lives in the village with his wife Milka. Georgi owns 30 horses--one (Mladenka) who was kind enough to pull us in a cart through the village to their Melissa fields! We were told that Mladenka, the horse, was so smart that he could be a president!
I have pictures of the distillery, the people and the herb fields on my Flickr account (along with the rest of the Bulgaria trip).