Telish & Castra Rubra

The Telish Wine Cellar was built in the late 1960s, but its new history began in 1999 when Jair Agopian bought the winery from the state and promptly began producing the bestsellers Telish Merlot and Telish Cabernet Sauvignon. Thus, Telish Merlot and Telish Cabernet Sauvignon were the first wines produced under the hand of Jair Agopian. The Telish winery began to produce high quality wines for a good value for money and has since then been at the forefront of introducing innovations for customers. In 2002, the Telish Winery became the first wine producer on the Bulgarian market to market its products in Bag-in-Box packaging.

The T-t and T-t Lux series, which combines the name of the winery and the name of the producer, reflects the claim to be one of the best producers with the best value for money. To this day, this is the basic idea of Telish: to offer the market honest wines of proven quality. The winery has created great expectations and earned respect through the "honest" wines it produces and the consistency in its efforts to satisfy its customers.
Over time Telish has significantly increased its wine selection, some of which include new and unusual creations for Bulgarian wine producers, such as Telish Sangiovese & Merlot and Telish Alicante Bouche & Merlot.

The Telish Winery has participated in many international wine competitions, proving its quality and taste worldwide. Telish wines can be found in more than 15 countries on three continents, including Germany. Thanks to innovation and the desire to create something new, Telish is a leader in the creation and establishment of a new wine image, which makes Bulgarian wine a trend-setter for the future.

In 2006, the construction of the Castra Rubra Winery began, which is a real work of art, an architectural jewel equipped with the latest technologies and state-of-the-art equipment. The standard is at the same time Castra Rubra's claim to the highest quality and minimum external influence on grapes and wine, which is fully in line with it.

The founders of Castra Rubra chose this place not only because of its phenomenal conditions for growing the best vineyards, but also because of its very good sun exposure, loose soils with an exceptional and varied composition of drainage and above all because the place is very rich in history.

The person who created the wines and leads the team of young oenologists of Castra Rubra Winery is Michel Rolland, the most important representative of the contemporary wine world.

Michel Rolland is not only the exclusive consultant of the winery, but also the guru of all modern thinking winemakers. It is an honor for Castra Rubra to have him as a member of their team and they believe that this is a privilege for Bulgarian wine as a whole.

Two young and talented oenologists are constantly working at Castra Rubra Winery. They are Plamena Kostova and Anton Dimitrov. Enthusiastic and ambitious, they are the new hope of Bulgarian wine. Worth mentioning is also the name of the managing director Tzvetan Georgiev, who takes care of everything in Castra Rubra and its vineyards.

Castra Rubra is a Latin name that literally means red fortress. This fortress was discovered by Bulgarian archaeologists in 2007.
In fact, 15 centuries ago there was a mythical Byzantine fortress with a strategic position at this place. For the first time the archaeological excavations proved that the place was inhabited by several different ethnic groups. The fortress was located on the ancient important trade route Via Diagonalis, which connected Europe with the Orient. Still today you can see the traces of the great diagonal road built by the Byzantine people to connect Rome and Constantinople. They dedicated one of their most successful wines to this road - Via Diagonalis.

The excavations proved that Castra Rubra was not only a fortress, but also a settlement and probably a large complex that housed weary travelers and caravans.

So they decided to plant the Castra Rubra winery and the new vineyards around this historic site. The work began in 2004 and now they have planted 200 hectares with varieties they considered very suitable for this terroir. The Castra Rubra vineyards are planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Alicante Bouschet, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Syrah, Petit Verdot and of course the local pride - Rubin and Mavrud.