Villa Yambol is the best winery in 2017

Its new brand, Kabile, got its first Gold Rhyton award and as many as three gold medals in its very first participation in an international tasting.

The National Vine and Wine Chamber elected Villa Yambol as winery of the year, granting its executive director the exclusive title of “Barrel of the Year”, the organization’s way of marking the leading wine producer of the year. Villa Yambol’s title was well deserved, following the company’s wines’ excellent performance at the annual competition held as part of the Vinaria Expo. The winery took home one fifth of all medals in the competition, getting the highest award, Gold Rhyton, as well as 9 gold and 4 silver medals. The most impressive thing was the strong launch of their new brand, KABILE, which had only happened a week before, to celebrate St. Trifon the Pruner, the sector’s professional holiday. As early as during the strong 2016 grapes picking campaign, the winery announced that they were planning to launch a new premium brand to quickly become popular among wine lovers and professional connoisseurs alike. The vow was kept even before the brand is available in retail, which will happen with the next two weeks, Villa Yambol said.

Through awarding the Gold Rhyron to it, KABILE Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc was declared the best white wine from the latest vintage, from among hundreds of competitors. Only 83 out of 369 wines got medals in the competition, 9 of the 50 gold ones being for Villa Yambol, while the others were awarded to other leading wine producers from Bulgaria, Moldova, Macedonia, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkey, the NVWC announced.

As early as last year, Villa Yambol became one of Bulgaria’s leading wineries, after receiving a number of international awards in the first months of 2016. In February, it was awarded Gold Rhyton, 5 gold and 1 silver medals at the Vinaria Expo, in March it got two other awards at the famous Mundus Vini competition, and in April – a gold medal at Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, collecting a total of 9 gold medals in the first four months of the year. Adding to these the medals from this year, the total number of awards received exceeds 80, thus supporting the producer in establishing itself as the best established winery in Bulgaria.

The Villa Yambol winery was first established in 1924 and is today one of the leading representatives of traditional Bulgarian wine growing around the world. The Yambol region is the second biggest one in agricultural production in Bulgaria, also including white and red grape varieties. It is a well-established winery region, which is historically proven. The city’s history began even before the Bulgarian state was established. In 293, a majestic city was built there with the divine name of Diospolis – Zeus’ city. According to historic and archeological data, the current territory is probably among the first geographic regions in the world where vines were grown and where the Thracians produced wine. This is also supported by archeologic excavations in the Kabille area, located near the city, which date back from the fourth century before Christ. The city was named after the goddess Cybele, who was celebrated as the mother of resurrecting nature and fertile land, the protector of vines and the primal force in each wine produced over the last 4,000 years in the Yambol region. Again here, the first decree to support wine growers was created in the 2nd century.