site.btaPrisoe Winery: For Wine Tourism to Develop, Sectors Must Work Together, Says Owner

BTA will present dozens of Bulgarian wineries in the New BG WINE Leads the Way series ahead of the 9th UN Global Conference on Wine Tourism, which will be hosted in Plovdiv. The forum is organized by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with the UN World Tourism Organization.

For strong wine tourism to thrive, different sectors,  vine growers, winemakers, hoteliers, tour operators, and restaurateurs, must look in the same direction and work together, said Stefan Baltadzhiev, owner of Prisoe Winery, in an interview with BTA.

The family-run winery is located near Varna and is managed by Baltadzhiev with the help of his mother. He is involved in vineyard cultivation, technological processes, hosting guests, and sales.

According to the winery, this year’s harvest is weaker due to unfavorable weather conditions - a cold spell in April and drought, especially in Northern Bulgaria. Another serious issue is the lack of labor. Workers are needed both in the vineyards and in the winery, but such staff are hard to find, the producer noted. He added that it's now common for wine makers to wait for Bulgarians who go to France to harvest grapes to return home so they can work in local vineyards as well.

Climate change is also affecting the work. The Prisoe vineyards grow Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Vratsa Muscat varieties. According to Baltadzhiev, tackling these challenges requires a comprehensive approach - changes in viticulture, technological adaptation, and partial replacement of grape varieties. In this regard, a European programme for vineyard restructuring and conversion is helpful, Baltadzhiev said, adding that he is considering applying for it himself.

The young winemaker stressed the need for consolidation within the industry. "Here, everyone is trying to survive on their own, they've found some way and they keep going. But in the West, people have figured it out - they join cooperatives, support each other, and that’s how they solve many of their problems," noted Baltadzhiev.

At Prisoe, wine tourism is a leading part of the business. The winery welcomes guests from various countries, with most visitors being wine enthusiasts rather than professionals. Tastings are conducted in English and French, and for Russian-speaking tourists, the owner’s mother also assists. Guests from traditional wine-producing countries like France, Italy, and Spain are pleasantly surprised by the quality of Bulgarian wines, especially reds. Most of the guests are young people, Baltadzhev added, clarifying that only about 5% of the visitors to Prisoe have solid experience with wine tastings.

According to him, in order to increase the number of visitors, the viticulture and winemaking industry needs to collaborate more actively with the tourism sector. "We need to align our thinking with restaurateurs, hoteliers, and tour operators," Baltadzhiev stressed.

Another issue facing the sector is the shortage of young technologists. The reasons are difficult working conditions, high responsibility, and the remote locations of many wineries from large urban centers. Baltadzhiev believes that more investment is needed in the training of a new generation of winemakers.

He considers himself lucky, as his father worked for many years as a technologist at the winery in Euxinograd and helped him learn the craft. "The problem is that the connection between generations is breaking, and winemaking is something that must be learned," Baltadzhiev said. According to him, the industry needs to think about and invest as well  in the education of young people. And not just to train them to be winemakers, but to teach them everything from A to Z - from how to grow grapes to how to make quality wine.

He added that, for example, he personally uses only Bulgarian barrels - old, oak ones. "They are also a tool for achieving quality," said Baltadzhiev, noting that he had tried foreign barrels as well but returned to the local ones.