The Four Friends winery has over 40 hectares of vineyards in the Thracian Valley, the best wine growing region of Bulgaria. Our estate is nestled in the folds of the landscape near the village of Gorno Botevo, east of the district center of Stara Zagora.
The choice of location was not accidental as this region is famous for its winemaking tradition spanning the last four millennia! It is this very tradition that the four close friends and wine enthusiasts have set out to revive.
The first vineyards of the varieties Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, were planted back in 2006, following a careful study of the terrain, the climatic and soil conditions of the region.
All the winery’s vineyards started bearing fruit as early as 2010; they are harvested by hand, and extra care is taken to avoid damage to the grapes, which are sorted manually to make sure that only healthy and clean berries will make it to the crushing tub.
The wines at Four Friends are made using classic methods with an exceptionally high share of manual labour, which, to a large extent, determines the quality of the wine. The winery has a total production capacity of 400 thousand litres annually, and a bottling capacity of some 300 thousand bottles. Like all small-scale boutique wineries, we use ‘vat’ type fermenters to make high-quality wines. This allows for the entire production process to be controlled manually, which is essential for the mellow taste and rich aroma of our wines.
The wine is then left to mature in oak barrels, which are topped up regularly while our cellar master carefully monitors the qualitative changes occurring in the wine as a result of oaking. The winery has a modern quality control lab with state-of-the-art equipment.