“If you listen carefully to the wines created by Ivo Varbanov, they will take you to a place of art and culture that transcends their simple Bulgarian origin.”
Our long-lasting vision is to establish the ultimate Bulgarian wines in one of the finest wine regions in the world, capable of producing Grand Cru quality wines.
We strongly believe in organic and biodynamic farming, without being dogmatic. Our project is a challenge and a dream at the same time. The challenge is to be able to produce wines of the highest quality in a specific area of Bulgaria: SOUTH SAKAR, which, we believe, has great potential and a unique terroir. Our dream is to see a Bulgarian wine on a par with wines from the best sites in the world. Reading the terroir is our MUST.
Ivo’s natural approach to viticulture and winemaking has the greatest respect for the environment: in his vineyards neither herbicides nor pesticides are used, and he has never applied any industrial practice in the winemaking.
His conception is simple but rigorous: wine is a cultural product reflecting the positive synergy of human being and terroir. He always prompts the ladies at the sorting table to ask themselves whether they would eat the grapes that are being sorted and are going to be used in the wine.
Despite his busy schedule, Ivo is involved in all aspects of winemaking.
His disciplined musical training has helped him to absorb information and knowledge on wine in a structured way; with his passion for wine he remembers almost any single wine he tasted – and due to his lifestyle as a musician, he tasted many wines all over the globe.
He does not delegate crucial decisions to his winemaker, wine consultant, or vineyard manager; therefore, the wines reflect his vision, taste, and personality. They are not tailored to please wine critics but are among the most successful examples of Bulgarian wines abroad among open-minded wine critics, connoisseurs, collectors, and wine lovers.
“In July 2016 I attended a two-day conference organised by L’Academie Internationale du Vin (AIV), at the historic Abadia Retuerta estate on the edge of Spain’s Ribera del Duero region. The theme was ‘A Tribute to Terroir’ and the session was opened by Bordeaux-born Pascal Delbeck, head winemaker since the start twenty-five years before, by saying: ‘Terroir is like music, it can’t play itself, it can’t even discover itself, it needs the hand of man.’ The question for the day was ‘How can man influence Terroir’, which was summed up by Carlos Falco, Marques de Grinon: ‘By knowledge and desire.’
Ivo Varbanov was elected a member of the AIV on my recommendation in 2018, so was of course not present, but he would have been there in spirit. The AIV, founded in the early 1960s by Swiss philosopher and wine lover Constant Bourquin, who accepted me as the first English member in 1973, has become an international ‘think tank’ to defend and promote what it calls ‘Le Vin Noble’. By this we do not mean aristocratic, although many such wines are so by their origin and pedigree, but wines with ‘noble intent’. Such wines carry the hallmarks of truth and purity, showing a sense of place (Terroir) created by the hand of man.
The wines that Ivo Varbanov has been producing in Bulgaria, almost single-handedly reminding us of his country’s 3,000-year viticultural history, are indeed of noble intent. Tasting them over the years from the first vintage in 2008, what were fledglings of the imagination (desire) have become through knowledge and dedication recognised examples of fine wine.
Hugh Johnson defines ‘fine wine’ simply as ‘a wine worth talking about’. Ivo Varbanov’s personal story (see Jancis Robinson) is certainly worth talking about. His prowess as a concert pianist, along with that of Fiammetta, his wife, is undoubted. I have several of the Varbanov CDs and a particular favourite is Ivo’s Sonata Op. 1 by Johannes Brahms. On the inside cover is a quote from Schumann after listening to the work in 1853: ‘One could compare him with a mighty river which, like Niagara, displays itself at its most beautiful when tumbling from the heights in a waterfall, sending up a rainbow from the waves, surrounded by butterflies at play and accompanied by the voices of nightingales.’
If you listen carefully to the wines created by Ivo Varbanov, they will take you to a place of art and culture that transcends their simple Bulgarian origin.”
– Steven Spurrier
Ivo Varbanov, 12 Friary Road
London W3 6AE, United Kingdom