Lovico Suhindol

The LOVICO SUHINDOL winery is the direct successor of the oldest winegrowing and viticulture cooperative in the Balkans, which was founded in 1909. Currently, the company is one of the driving forces of Bulgarian wine production. The annual production capacity exceeds 10 million liters of wine. About 80 percent of the total wine production is exported.

The LOVICO SUHINDOL winery is located in the northern wine-growing region of Bulgaria and specializes in the production of high-quality white and red wines. The wine assortment covers a very wide range of products - from table wines, varietal and blended wines, reserve wines to selected special wines. In the centuries-old cellars of the winery there is a rich collection of collectors and oenotheque wines from the best vintages of the founding year.

The LOVICO SUHINDOL winery is part of the Northern Wine Route in Bulgaria. The winery has a wine museum in the Suhindol region, which is devoted to the history of wine production and the wine-growing traditions of the company. Lovico Suhindol are also pioneers in the field of wine tasting tourism and have been active in this field for several decades.

"... Founded in 1909, Suhindol Winery, one of the oldest in the country, is Bulgaria's flagship winery and has shown a remarkable dynamism in recent years ... and every year new top wines have been created ... "
Quote: from the book WEIN by André Dominé

For many wine connoisseurs in dozens of countries around the world, the name Suhindol means a first experience and discovery of the magic of Bulgarian wines.

Since its foundation in the distant 1909, the Lovico Suhindol Winery has become one of the most important driving forces of the Bulgarian wine industry and has remained at the forefront until now. Thanks to the efforts and the quality of the winery, the breakthrough for Bulgarian quality wines was achieved on the international markets worldwide. As one of the leading wine exporters in Bulgaria, with a history of exporting since 1914 and destinations in more than 40 countries on 5 continents, the Lovico Suhindol Winery exports over 4 million bottles of white and red wines per year.

Lovico Suhindol specializes in wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Mavrud, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Muscat, Sauvignon Blanc and Gamza, an autochthonous grape variety. Lovico Suhindol cultivates around 300 hectares of its own vineyards and includes grapes from a number of local traditional winegrowers in order to help the economy of the Suhindol region and fulfill social responsibilities.

Lovico Suhindol has been working on specific projects over the last few years and has managed to revive the old Suhindol tradition of producing high quality boutique wines, vinified by blending classic methods with modern innovative techniques. In its long history the winery has won hundreds of prestigious awards at many international wine forums and competitions. After more than 100 years of winemaking tradition and experience, the company's goal remains unchanged - to create wines of outstanding quality and new style, while preserving the unique and complex character of Bulgarian wines and transferring these traditions to the next generations.

Since ancient times, the region around Suhindol has collected and preserved historical documents, artifacts and evidence of viticulture and wine production.

The Lovico Suhindol Winery is a direct successor of the oldest winegrowers' cooperative in the Balkans. As early as 1909 the founder Marko Vachkov brought together local winegrowers, winemakers and their families. The aim was to build a wine cellar and start a commercial production of wine using the most advanced winemaking techniques. Due to its partnership nature, professionally managed wine cellar and experimental viticulture, the winery was the oldest of its kind in Bulgaria and the Balkans and remained unique in our country until the end of the 1920s.

Marko Vachkov himself had skills and expertise in viticulture and oenology, as well as some technical skills acquired in Bulgaria and France. Under his leadership the cooperative grew to become the leading wine producer of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1952 the assets of the company, wine cellars and vineyards were nationalized. In the following decades, large investments were made in technological renewal, market research and new vineyards. In 1991-1992 the winery was privatized and continued as an independent company.
 
Today the Lovico Suhindol Winery is a leading company in the Bulgarian wine industry. The introduction of modern vinification methods, combined with the tradition and experience of over 100 years of business practice, guarantee the creation of wines with a genuine Bulgarian character and quality.

In 2009 Lovico Suhindol officially celebrated his 100th anniversary. However, the company's roots go far back in time and lead through the glorious traditions of the ancient Thracian tribes and their wines, which were praised in Homer's Iliad, through the winemaking practices of the days of ancient Rome and Ellada and through the historical records of the Crusaders and the archives of the Ottoman Empire.

Hundreds of small and big events, actions and decisions, victories and tragedies have paved the way of the Lovico Suhindol Winery through time and have shaped its present essence.

In 2009, Lovico Suhindol Winery officially celebrated 100 years of existence since its foundation. In its long history the winery has won hundreds of prestigious awards, medals and diplomas at international wine fairs and wine competitions in Bulgaria and abroad. They are all true acknowledgements of the outstanding quality of the wines and the skill and professionalism of generations of oenologists and winemakers.

The company is a 7-time winner of the highest professional award for wine production in Bulgaria - the Golden Rhyton. The very last of them was awarded to us at the VINARIA 2009 wine fair in Plovdiv in the category "Old vintage red wines" for our wine Lovico 100 Cabernet Sauvignon 2007.

The turbulence and historical turns of over 100 years of viticulture at Lovico Suhindol have largely undermined the memories and traces of a considerable number of these old awards. The complete list of the other awards preserved in the archives can be consulted at Lovico Suhindol.

As a company with over 100 years of winemaking tradition, Lovico Suhindol is proud of the thousands of wines produced by the cellar masters during this time. For the wines Lovico Suhindol uses most of the traditional grape varieties of the Old World as well as some typical and symbolic Bulgarian grape varieties such as Gamza and Mavrud.

In recent years, Lovico Suhindol has revived the old tradition of the Suhindol region, producing high quality wines in limited editions, produced according to a special technological scheme. These wines are then aged in French and American oak barrels and then in the bottle. These are the wines of the LS RESERVE line.

Lovico Suhindol is also very proud of the variety of their wine lines, which they constantly enrich and develop. The selection for beginners starts with exquisite table and varietal wines like the Lovico line. In the middle range you will find remarkable wines with an excellent price-performance ratio. A good example of this are the elegant and complex wines of the new SUHINDOL line, where classical and modern viticultural techniques have been skilfully applied to create the perfect harmony of two grape varieties, as well as the unique terroir wines of the KOTTA 299 series.

For the connoisseurs, the high-end wines are a selection that are among the best examples of Bulgarian viticulture and have received many international awards and medals. The top wines in the Highline selection are LIN 53 - a coupage wine from the most important grape varieties of our vineyards and LOVICO 100 - an excellent wine created for the 100th anniversary of our winery.

Driven by a constant quest to create outstanding wines, Lovico Suhindol combines the soil conditions with the specific regional microclimate to cultivate some of the best grapes in Bulgaria.
Lovico Suhindol cultivates about 300 hectares of his own vineyards in the Suhindol region, north of the Forebalkan Ridge in the southern part of the Danube plain. The terrain is slightly elevated and surrounded by single hilly terroir. The vineyards house slope sections of the southern, southeastern and eastern exposition with an inclination of 2 to 6 degrees and an altitude of 230 to 350 meters above sea level.

The geological basis of the territory is one of the lower cretaceous and clayey conglomerates. The soil-forming components are carbonates, sandy loam and clay deposits. The soil cover consists of strongly and slightly leached black earth - slightly eroded and slightly clayey.

The soil and air temperature properties are among the leading advantages of Suhindol, in the field of viticulture. In terms of climate, this region falls within the European continental climate on Bulgarian territory; and especially in the climate zone Danube-Hilly-Plain. The warmest months are July and August, the lowest temperatures are in January.

The highest rainfall is between the end of spring (May) and early summer (June-July). The total annual rainfall of 611 mm / m² is extremely favorable for viticulture. From an agroclimatic point of view, the vineyards fall into the moderately warm zone (from 3700 ° C to 4100 ° C annually) with a dry season. The total temperature sum for the period with temperatures above 10 ° C is 3775 ° C.

It is Lovico's belief that their own yield of high quality grapes is the key to creating good wine. Therefore, the Lovico Suhindol Winery cultivates about 300 hectares of vineyards near Suhindol. The main vineyards are Alchaka and Star Dimcha - two local areas with climatic and soil characteristics perfect for growing wine. All the vines are of different ages - from those that are just reaching their fructiferous phase, to those that are up to 30 years old. It is an interesting fact that the total length of all the rows of vines in the vineyards of Lovico Suhindol is equal to the length of the road between Suhindol and Venice in Italy.

The main grape varieties cultivated by Lovico Suhindol are the indigenous Gamza, as well as the traditional Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat. In implementing a special company program for the development of viticulture, Lovico is planting new French grape varieties such as Petit Verdot and Malbec, and is also taking steps to propagate and renovate the indigenous Gamza grape variety.

The different concepts for the development of viticulture can be seen in the different constructions of the vines. In the vineyards of Lovico Suhindol there are wide and narrow cordons, the umbrella constructions of Umbrella and Cordon de Royat.

At Lovico Suhindol, we have our own fleet of modern viticulture technology and equipment for the proper amelioration and care of our own vineyards.

As part of the implementation of Lovico Suhindol's development program and with the aim of reviving the tradition of traditional viticulture in the old Suhindol region, a new and modernly equipped workshop for limited series of top quality wines was put into operation and inaugurated in 2007.

The technology team of the microtechnician has 600 barrique 225-liter oak barrels made of American and French oak. 220 of them are new, supplied by the French barrel manufacturer Radoux.
In 2008, the equipment of the workshop was extended by a new bottling line with a production capacity of 2500 bottles per hour, which is perfectly suited for bottling high quality wines.

As a true recognition of the vinification of our winery for over a hundred years, LOVICO SUHINDOL was awarded in 2008, under the registered company name of Lovico Lozari AG, the prestigious international certificate BRC - GLOBAL STANDARD FOR FOOD SAFETY.

"... Bulgaria's phenomenal export success in the 1970s and 1980s was based on one of the most venerable wine growing traditions in the world ...".
Quote: from Stuart Walton's new illustrated wine guide

In 1914, only a few years after the GAMZA Cooperative for Viticulture and Wine Production was founded in 1909, the first export of wines to Europe took place. Since that time, thousands of wine shipments have taken place, and to date Lovico Suhindol has exported hundreds of millions of liters of wine to 43 countries on 5 continents. The complete list of countries to which Lovico Suhindol has exported wines can be consulted at Lovico Suhindol.