Grape growing and wine production have a long history in Bulgaria, dating back to the times of the Thracians. There is evidence of Bulgarian winemaking since 4000 B.C. Wine is, together with beer and grape rakia, among the most popular alcoholic beverages in the country.
Bulgaria was the world’s fourth-largest wine exporter in the 1980s, and most of the production was in bulk and destinated to the USSR, but the industry starts to decline when During 1985–87, Mikhail Gorbachev carried out an anti-alcohol campaign with partial prohibition, colloquially known as the “dry law”. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised, and their sales were restricted in amount and time of day.
That and the later fall of the USSR made that in Bulgaria the land planted with grape was reduced dramatically, but during the last years, wine production is growing again with new grapes been planted and increase in the quality standards.
Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre.
The Thracian god of wine, Zagreus, who is the prototype of the worshiped by the ancient Greeks Dionysus, as well as the Roman Bacchus.
It is thought that a famous Temple of Dionysius was located at Perperikon.
