site.btaTipchenitza Winery: New Blends of Bulgarian and Foreign Grapes Gain Popularity Abroad

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.

Recent trends in the wine sector highlight local grape varieties, while international demand is growing for wines that blend Bulgarian and foreign grapes, Tipchenitza Winery Director and winemaker Nadya Mineva told BTA. The winery is located at the edge of the eponymous village in the Mezdra region. The small winery is licensed to store and produce up to 100 tonnes of wine annually and currently produces between 50,000 and 60,000 bottles from various vintages, Mineva said.

The winery’s first commercial vintage was 2018, but the company has been active since 2003, when it planted its first vineyards. It initially operated as a nursery for vine cuttings. Residents of Tipchenitza village have been producing vine cuttings since the early 20th century, exporting them both domestically and abroad. During the socialist era, exports reached several million units, stored in an underground stone cellar now housing the winery.

“We have records from 1906 of master vine growers who began planting mother vines extensively. Nearly every household used its yard for vine cultivation. From here, cuttings were exported, previously stored in this cellar. We renovated it, and now it houses barrels and bottled wines,” Mineva said.

The winery’s vineyards are located close to the facility. Grapes are also purchased from other producers within an 80 km radius northwest to preserve the style of the final product. “The soils here are suitable for many white varieties. About 70% of our production focuses on aromatic white wines. We started with roughly 28 ha, some of which are now gradually being renovated,” the Director emphasized.

The winery produces two main local varieties – Vratsa Misket and Rubin. “Local varieties allow us to create unique Bulgarian wines. We demonstrate different approaches to working with them while maintaining consistency. I call them the different faces of Vratsa Misket and Rubin,” Mineva said.

In seven years on the market, the winery has won over 80 international awards at prestigious competitions such as Decanter, Mundus Vini, and Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. Its wines are sold domestically and internationally in Belgium, Germany, the UK, the U.S., and Canada. The winery’s owner, Velin Djidjev, chairs the Association of the Danube Winemakers, which works on joint projects to promote local wines in third markets.

“We want to change the poor reputation from the past, show that our products can be high-quality and sell worldwide, and we are putting great effort into this,” Mineva said.