"The way things are going, we might have a chance for a late seaside vacation in September, so there are pluses from the early harvest," Svilen Georgiev, the oenologist of the Little Star winery in South Sakar jokes. This year, winemakers in the sunbaked region are harvesting grapes much earlier than usual. And they are not the only ones - the heat and drought have changed the growing season of the vines and the production rhythm throughout the country. Southern Bulgaria, where the harvest takes place a month earlier, is the most affected, but the process in the Thracian lowlands and northern Bulgaria is also 20 days earlier than usual.
The early grape harvest is not entirely smooth. In short: significantly lower yields are a widespread phenomenon and the quality assessment is not unambiguous. The changes are also increasing costs for some wineries and leading to difficulties in organizing the already perennially scarce workforce. However, these problems do not necessarily affect the shelf, because consumers are sensitive to the price of Bulgarian wine.
The bigger question is whether this exceptional year will be unique, or whether the drought and high temperatures will remain and permanently shift the wine cycle. Some expect the latter scenario and believe that the industry needs to start thinking several steps ahead. In fact, the outlook for winemaking across southern Europe, including the Balkans, is not rosy precisely because of climate change.
Chronology of another hard summer
In South Sakar this year the vine buds burst already on April 1 - a month earlier than usual. The white varieties - here mostly Chardonnay and Viognier - were harvested in mid-August. In the Struma Valley it happened even earlier. "We started the grape harvest of white varieties on July 31 - never before has such a thing happened," says Lyubka Zikatanova of Villa Melnik.
In the Thracian Lowlands, the grape harvest is also 20 days earlier than usual, as well as in the Northeast region and along the Danube. The effect is a little more moderate along the Black Sea coast, where the sea brings more coolness, but there too this year the white varieties ripen prematurely - some have ripened Riesling at the end of August, just a month before its time, others have harvested Sauvignon Blanc ten days earlier. The effects of early "ripening" are several. The most common is that, because of the lack of water, grapes across the country are "lighter" - drier and with less juice. So the yield is at least 30% (or more, in some farms) lower.
When drip irrigation becomes a lifeline
In principle, drip irrigation is not in huge demand in wineries that are focused on producing quality wines. Vines are adaptable plants, able to survive in difficult conditions. When their roots develop sufficiently, they reach the deep mineral layers and absorb groundwater. This also significantly improves the quality of the wine. For this to happen, however, the vines have to be stimulated to take deep roots. When they are watered, they are "spoilt" - their roots develop horizontally in the moist and nutrient-rich topsoil.
In South Sakar, most wineries are small and quality-focused, and irrigation is not very common. Here, heat is nothing new and the local varieties are hardy. But this summer has gone to another level. "Vines have no problem enduring periods of extreme temperatures and drought. But this time we had those conditions not for weeks, but for months. It last rained in May. June started with temperatures in the 30s, and July and August were 40+ degrees, with strong hot winds at times. Nighttime temperatures were very high as well. At some point the vines just shut down to preserve themselves and stopped feeding and developing," Svilen Georgiev says.
There are few good moves in such conditions. One is to help the vines with various agronomic practices, like pruning. But this is hardly enough for long periods of extreme temperatures. Replacing varieties with more resistant ones is difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Thus, for the moment drip irrigation is one of the few effective solutions and wineries - at least those close to irrigation canals - resort to constructing such.
Sweet and Sour
Another effect of the heat is that grapes build up sugars very quickly and reach what is known as technological ripeness before they reach physiological ripeness. This is particularly important because it determines the development of aromas, freshness, aging potential and many of the wine's other fine qualities. As a rule of thumb, oenologists look for a balance between the two when deciding when it's time to harvest. "At extremely high temperatures, grapes build up sharply higher sugars, but often at the expense of acids. In such conditions it doesn't really ripen, it dries out," Svilen Georgiev says. That's generally not a formula for a very good quality wine.
Another problem specific to the Northern Black Sea coast is that a strong Black Sea cyclone brought heavy rains for several days at the end of August after a period of drought. "The grapes are healthy, but after the rains they are very delicate and with a little careless picking the grapes are directly sprayed," Desi Maleevska from the Zharava winery near Varna says.
The knock-on effects on business
The low yields are raising grape prices by at least 20%, according to winemakers, and for those who do not own their vineyards this means increased costs for the second year in a row. The sector receives direct subsidies per unit area under the common agricultural policy of the EU, but according to the winegrowers this is woefully inadequate. The political deadlock and the frequent changes of ministers in charge make the dialogue with the authorities even more difficult. At the same time, due to the recent inflation spike, there is stagnation on the demand side and producers are wary of raising prices.
There are other difficulties, too. The simultaneous ripening of the red and white grape sorts means that all the work will be concentrated in a much shorter space of time than usual, which creates personnel problems, Lyubka Zikatanova of Villa Melnik says.
It remains an open question what comes next and whether such heavy early-harvest summers will increasingly become the norm. "Perhaps it is time to learn more from the experience of colleagues in other hot regions. There are vineyard practices in hot climates that we are not familiar with," Downtown's Veselin Rashev says. More work has to be done by the Bulgarian research institutions too. Because it is certain that hot summers are here to stay.
"The way things are going, we might have a chance for a late seaside vacation in September, so there are pluses from the early harvest," Svilen Georgiev, the oenologist of the Little Star winery in South Sakar jokes. This year, winemakers in the sunbaked region are harvesting grapes much earlier than usual. And they are not the only ones - the heat and drought have changed the growing season of the vines and the production rhythm throughout the country. Southern Bulgaria, where the harvest takes place a month earlier, is the most affected, but the process in the Thracian lowlands and northern Bulgaria is also 20 days earlier than usual.
The early grape harvest is not entirely smooth. In short: significantly lower yields are a widespread phenomenon and the quality assessment is not unambiguous. The changes are also increasing costs for some wineries and leading to difficulties in organizing the already perennially scarce workforce. However, these problems do not necessarily affect the shelf, because consumers are sensitive to the price of Bulgarian wine.