2010 - Poor Grapes For Wine But Good For Rakia

Looks like the grape harvest in Bulgaria, as expected this year, is a poor one. Wine will suffer but rakia is unaffected to a degree. The chances are that even more rakia will be made this year as an outcome.

Bulgaria’s 2010 wine year will be a memorable one for all the wrong reasons, it seems, with a harvest yielding grapes of poorer quality than last year, and domestic sales and exports down.

Mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa said that the quality of this year’s grapes was significantly poorer than those of 2009, making them more appropriate for rakiya (grape brandy) than turning into wine.

Quote from: www.sofiaecho.com

Potentially Cheaper Rakia

For rakia makers ikn Bulgaria an interesting news flash.....

Locally home-made brandy called rakia would be two lev (one euro) a litre cheaper if the EU allowed the country to present “Bulgarian rakia” as a national brand, as Sofia would pay 50 per cent less in tax, leading to a drop in price.

Extract from: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30502/

A Recent Video On Making Rakia

This is a video that was recently shot in Bulgaria. It is not that informative but just a little camcord fun from some American tourists. However it does show a typical rakia house and the sytems they use to distill.



Making Rakia from Billy Knox on Vimeo.