site.btaIt Is Much Easier to Make Wine Than Sell It, Says Medal-Winning Winemaker

It is much easier to make wine than to sell it, boutique winery owner Hristo Kovachev told BTA in Troyan on Wednesday. His wines won two gold and four silver medals at the International Vinaria Exhibition in Plovdiv in February.

Licensed in 2019, Kovachev's winery is named Noya after the Thracian name of the Osam River, whose springs are nearby. The cellar's vessel capacity is between 80-90 t of wine, which fits the definition of a small winery in Bulgaria. The Noya wines are in the middle price range.

Kovachev noted that grapes are slow to ripen in mountainous regions, but he buys grapes from all over Bulgaria, betting on more unconventional varieties, from which he tries to make good wine. "When I find a variety that produces good wine, I go back to that location again and again," he said, adding that buying grapes from the same place every year guarantees a certain consistency of the taste, as the terroir determines to a significant extent the quality of the grapes and therefore the quality of the wines. In dry or very humid years, there may be some deviations in the taste, but they will not be noticeable to the mass consumer, he said.

More and more consumers in the country trust Bulgarian wines, the winemaker pointed out. He said that about 70% of the market in Bulgaria is held by white and rosé wines, with people drinking red wine less and less, which Kovachev attributes to the warm winters as well. The interesting thing about production is that white and rosé fermentations are produced at low temperature, he said. Fermentation takes place at 14-16 degrees for a long time. "In this way, we manage to capture all the aromatic compounds that nature has given to the given grape variety," he noted. At higher temperatures, the aromatic compounds are volatile and fly into the air, while at low temperatures they remain inside the wine, so that when drinking the wine, the varietal characteristics of each grape variety can be felt, Kovachev pointed out.

The quality that is achieved in small vessels can never be achieved in 50-100 ton tanks, he stressed, adding that Noya Winery works with three-, five- and two-ton vessels. "We are competitive in terms of quality, but we cannot be competitive in terms of price. In any case, we produce extremely high-quality wines, but they are not cheap at all," he commented. Kovachev pointed out that Noya belongs to the small artisanal factories that produce for the sophisticated consumer, for which it would be difficult to enter and supply the mass consumer.

In recent years, the winery has received medals at all the exhibitions in which it participates, with Kovachev emphasising that consumers seek out award-winning wines and that it is always impressive when there is a medal in front of the bottle. "I observe that more and more young people come to the stand (during exhibitions). This means that the wine culture is shifting from the middle to the younger generation, which is generally used to drinking stronger drinks," Kovachev noted.

He pointed out that overall market conditions are difficult due to the import of unregulated, subsidized wines from all over the world. "If the state takes a stand to stand behind domestic production and limits the import of subsidized wines or wines that do not contain grapes, it will be much easier for us," he stressed. He added that the subsidy for winegrowers in Bulgaria is very low and therefore the value of grapes in the country is quite high, which is why there is no way that wine made from grapes can be cheap.

For the time being, his winery mainly sells to the Bulgarian market. "In order to break through, you need to have a volume of several varieties of 20,000 to 30,000 bottles, while a small cellar cannot simultaneously maintain a large assortment and the necessary quantity of it," Kovachev said.

He personally controls the entire production, from the delivery of the grapes to the finished wine.

"Wine is a living organism and it can present various surprises at any time. A person who takes good care of his wine, drinks good wine," Kovachev concluded.