Bulgaria’s wine industry has been subject to constant challenges in the past 15 years. It went through a very tough process of privatisation, only to rise from the ashes and begin its journey back to world popularity.
In search of the marketing tools for this comeback, wine producers in Bulgaria have, in the past decade and more, enjoyed the hospitality of what is believed to be the largest vine growing and wine making exhibition in the Balkans - Vinaria. This annual event, organised and hosted by the International Plovdiv Fair, has proven to be the shortest bridge between what Bulgaria hopes to be in the world of wine, and what is on the global map of wine dealers, critics and lovers.
“If Bulgarian wine today is popular at all in the world, it owes its glory to two things. One is the efforts that traders spend on popularising it abroad, and the other is the Vinaria exhibition and festival of wine,” Yordan Radev, executive director of the Plovdiv International Fair, and a key figure behind Vinaria, told Vintellectual.
In his view, Vinaria is not just an exhibition. It is a festival because, not only does it show wine, it also turns the love for it into a large celebration and a holiday for all those whose hearts and souls are dedicated to the “elixir of life”.
“With Vinaria as a brand, Bulgaria has participated in many exhibitions, like the one in London (the London International Wine & Spirits Fair), ProVine in Dusseldorf, Germany, and many others. This means that all over the world, people who are in any way related to the wine industry, its technologies and sales, are all making an analogy between Bulgaria and Vinaria,” Radev said.
He believes that Vinaria is not only a place for wine, but also for the entire industry to show itself and attract those that have interests in the wine business. This includes vine growing, which is the prerequisite for any other activity that follows after the grapes find their way into the sunny valleys and hill slopes.
“The precious thing about Vinaria is not only in the beautiful wines shown and offered for tasting there, but also the presence of companies offering equipment and technologies for the entire process of wine making. Most of the foreign companies come to the festival exactly because they can make such an offer,” Radev said.
The presence of the newest equipment and methods on display is of utmost importance. The old wineries may have the technology, but they lack the modern approach and the newest machinery used in the sector, which produce more wine and of higher quality.
Furthermore, Vinaria is a place where several industries meet with wine making to form strong alliances. These include agriculture, light industry and the food sector.
“At Vinaria we also aim to demonstrate that wine is an art, a culture. Together with the hotel and management associations, and with other people involved in the sector, we often stage seminars and other events sharing knowledge of wine serving and consumption. After all, it was the ancient Romans that said that wine is not just another drink, but an elixir,” Radev said.
The companies participating in Vinaria also contribute to the development of wine culture by staging large presentations of their products. The accompanying wine tasting events of course are a favourite for the tens of thousands of visitors. And when exhibitors combine wine tasting with foods complimentary to wine, like cheese and salami, the experience is complete.
Last year, Vinaria was officially opened by President Georgi Purvanov. Radev said that for this year’s exhibition, the management has invited Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev “to take the first sip”.
“The attendance of top state officials is not just for decoration. It is to demonstrate the attitude and the involvement of the state in developing the wine industry. Because wine is one of Bulgaria’s convertible currencies for the world. Our wine industry will take us through the main gate of the European Union,” Radev said in view of Bulgaria’s anticipated accession to the EU.
“After last year’s Vinaria, we hosted some wine tasting events in Brussels and there we received some of the most favourable comments for the quality of Bulgarian wine. Even French people are impressed how different, rich and tasty Bulgarian wines are. They have nothing to do with Argentinean, Chilean or French wines. The response to them is that they are unique in density and aroma. This country’s wines have many more substances teasing the taste receptors of the consumer than most of the products offered worldwide,” he said.
And he strongly believes that Bulgaria should concentrate on making quality wines rather than trying to flood the market with large quantities of cheaper products, which he sees as impossible. In his view, the country does not possess the capacity to make large quantities. This is why it could hardly compete with forces like Chile or Argentina in volume, but “can definitely beat them in quality”.
The forthcoming accession of Bulgaria to the EU brings fears for some vine growers and wine makers in this country. The highly competitive wine industry is quite restricted by quotas and rules inside the union as each producer wants to conquer the market. According to Radev, however, Bulgarians have nothing to fear, and not because they would enjoy any privileges, but because of their potential.
“We have not reached the quotas that the EU has fixed for Bulgaria and we could hardly reach them soon. Therefore, I see no threat for our producers in terms of limitations to the quantities they make. Currently, the sector is mainly developed in wine making itself. But vine growing lags behind and this is where all efforts should be spent if we want to have quantity, varieties and of course, quality,” he said.
Radev admits that many local producers of wine have already recognised the challenges and have started to make strategies for expanding vine growing activities. Small pieces of land are bought and regrouped. This is just the first step of reviving the growing. The next will come with planting more and more grapes, as it is a care-intensive culture and requires time and handling before producing the desired results.
Asked what kind of model Bulgria should follow, Radev points to what France and Italy have done in history to make their wines popular. He believes that the future of Bulgarian wine is in introducing the model of the chateau, which has its own grapes and produces limited series of high quality.
There is an ongoing debate among Bulgarian wine makers as to what vine varieties should be grown more. It elaborates on whether the country should focus on its local types and advertise them a lot, or put their stakes on the internationally popular varieties. In Radev’s view, both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.
If Bulgaria wants to offer its unique varieties, like Mavrud, Melnik, Rubin and others, it needs to have a very large acreage planted with them to be able to flood the market with wine made from them and to say: “This is Bulgarian wine!” But, this is hard to achieve and will require a lot of investment.
When this happens, Vinaria as a trademark will come into play and will serve as a bridge between the domestic wine sector and the international markets.
“If in Dusseldorf and in London we can present Bulgarian wine as Vinaria, we will definitely have success. Later, we will offer the different varieties and say: ‘This is the Mavrud, and this is the Melnik,’ and so on. Vinaria will demonstrate the product - Bulgarian wine - and the varieties will come just as sub-products,” Radev said.
Another important step in the wine transformation of this country he sees is increasing the share of wine in terms of consumption. Now, spirits are still prevailing on the market and in demand. And just like the French, Radev believes that in order to turn wine into a successful commodity, people should make it a part of their everyday culture.
Last but not least, comes the regulation of both production and trade. The need for control is obvious and Bulgaria has already suffered blows from competitors who were offering low-quality wine and advertising it as Bulgarian. Of course, these are business weapons but it is in the hands of Bulgaria and its entrepreneurs to prevent such strikes.
All efforts Bulgarian wine makers and traders make should focus in a very important direction, Radev said. This is to help Bulgarian wine come out of what he defines as a “bad price category”.
“It is true that the market itself regulates the price. But, it is also true that many Bulgarian companies are entering the market with the attitude that they can only make it into the low-price category. You cannot start with dumping prices and hope to become a leader in sales. Such an approach is not justified even when a company needs to penetrate the market,” he said.
When customers enter the stores, Radev says, they first see the quality and more expensive wines, which are “on the level of their sight” up on the shelves. The lower the quality, the lower the price and lower the position on the shelves.
“What we need is to fight for the upper shelves and for the line of sight because this will show us to be a quality producer and will makes us popular in the highly-demanding markets,” Radev said.
