Did you know that Bulgaria was the second largest producer of wine in the world in the 1980s? Today, the country may not be producing wine on such a massive scale, but its thousand-year-old winemaking traditions continue to deliver high-quality and affordable Bulgarian wine.
Indeed, vine growing and winemaking have been part of Bulgarian culture since time immemorial. Thousands of years ago in what is today Bulgaria, the ancient Thracians were consuming wine from elaborate gold vessels in the shape of animals and mythical creatures. And who wouldn’t grow wine in Bulgaria – its sunlit hills, fertile soils and geographic latitude (equivalent to central Italy or southern France to the west) provide the perfect vine growing conditions practically all over the country.
The past 2020, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, was a good yet difficult year for Bulgarian vine growers and wine makers. It was also quite dry, which created conditions for a good grape harvest. This was summarized for BTA by Prof. Ivan Pachev – director of the only Institute of Viticulture and Enology in Bulgaria.