Pelin
Bulgaria · Pelin
A traditional Bulgarian aromatised wine, not a distilled spirit — red, white or rosé wine flavoured with wormwood (pelin, the Bulgarian name for Artemisia) and other botanicals, often rounded out with fruit such as grapes, apples or quince. Written references trace to the mid-19th century, when it appeared at festive occasions and as an aperitif; the village of Osmar on the Shumen Plateau (producing since 1898) and Sungurlare on the southern slopes of the Balkan Mountains are the traditional centres. Under current EU rules it must be made from wine at a minimum 8.5% alcohol, with defined limits on sugar and acidity. Wormwood-flavoured wine has far deeper roots than Bulgaria alone — related aromatised wines appear across European wine culture under different regional names, with evidence of similar herb-and-wormwood wine additions found in vessels from Abydos, Egypt, dating to roughly 3150 BCE.