Top 10 Distilleries in Bulgaria
Bulgaria's distilling tradition is built primarily around rakia — a fruit brandy produced across the Balkans from a range of raw materials including plums, grapes, apricots, and quinces. Bulgarian rakia has deep cultural roots: it is the spirit of hospitality, served to arriving guests as a matter of tradition, present at celebrations and at funerals, consumed with meze and throughout the agricultural year. The country produces both home-distilled rakia (widely made by farming families) and commercial versions ranging from low-cost industrial products to carefully crafted artisanal expressions. Alongside rakia, Bulgaria has wine-based brandy (Bulgarian cognac or Sliven), a small whisky sector, and a growing craft gin movement centred on Sofia. Explore these producers on the distillery world map.
1. Vinprom Peshtera, Peshtera
Vinprom Peshtera in the Plovdiv region is one of Bulgaria's largest producers of grape brandy and rakia, operating since the 1950s. The distillery processes grapes from the surrounding Thracian Plain, one of Bulgaria's most productive wine-growing regions, producing both grape rakia (grozdova rakia) and aged brandy expressions. The company's aged brandy products, sold under the Peshtera label, are widely available across Bulgaria and are among the most recognised domestic brandy brands.
2. Aheloy Distillery, Aheloy
Aheloy, near Burgas on the Black Sea coast, is home to a major spirit production facility that draws on the fruit orchards and vineyards of the Eastern Rhodopes and the Thracian lowlands. The distillery produces both wine-based spirits and plum rakia from damson plums grown in the Rhodope Mountain foothills. The coastal location historically facilitated export of Bulgarian spirits through the Black Sea ports.
3. Mariana Distillery, Troyan
The Troyan area in central Bulgaria — at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains — is known for its plum orchards and is a heartland of slivova (plum rakia) production. Mariana Distillery in Troyan uses locally grown plums, primarily Stanley and Posivna varieties, in traditional copper pot stills that are refilled and redistilled to produce a double-distilled slivova of considerable complexity. The mountainous terrain and cooler climate of the Troyan region produces plums with higher acidity and more concentrated flavour than lowland fruit.
4. Staro Bardo Distillery, Kazanlak
Kazanlak is famous as the centre of Bulgarian rose oil production — the Valley of Roses produces much of the world's rose attar — and Staro Bardo Distillery has developed spirits that incorporate rose petal distillates alongside traditional grain and fruit spirits. Rose-infused rakia and spirits flavoured with rose water represent a distinctively Bulgarian contribution to the flavoured spirits category, and the distillery's location in the rose-growing heartland gives it unique access to this botanical.
5. Burgas 63, Burgas
Burgas 63, produced at a distillery near the Black Sea city of Burgas, is one of Bulgaria's most recognisable grain vodka brands, named for the 63 percent ABV at which it is sometimes sold in its original format. The distillery produces both grain-based and mixed spirits for the domestic and Balkan export market. The brand has developed recognition in adjacent markets in Serbia, Romania, and Greece.
6. Pirin Distillery, Bansko
Bansko, at the foot of the Pirin Mountains and best known as Bulgaria's primary ski resort town, hosts a craft distillery that produces single-variety fruit spirits using produce from the surrounding mountain orchards. The cooler temperatures and clean mountain water of the Pirin region — a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its natural significance — provide the production conditions for delicate fruit brandies from wild plum, wild pear, and apple grown in the mountain foothills.
7. Sofia Craft Spirits, Sofia
Sofia's emerging craft distilling scene is represented by several small producers operating from the capital city. Sofia Craft Spirits produces gin using botanicals from the Bulgarian countryside, including wild herbs from the Rhodope Mountains and rose petal from the Kazanlak valley. The urban distillery model — small batch, transparent provenance, cocktail-oriented marketing — mirrors developments in London, Melbourne, and Brooklyn, and positions Bulgarian craft gin within the international conversation about botanical diversity and local terroir.
8. Preslav Winery and Distillery, Preslav
Preslav, in northeastern Bulgaria's wine country near the Danube, operates a distillery alongside its established winery, producing pisco-adjacent grape spirit from Muscat Ottonel and other aromatic white varieties grown in the region. The combination of Bulgaria's viticulture tradition with pot-still distillation techniques influenced by both local rakia practice and imported Cognac methodology has produced a grape spirit with genuine aromatic complexity.
9. Rhodope Rakia House, Smolyan
Smolyan in the central Rhodope Mountains is one of the most traditional rakia-producing areas of Bulgaria. The Rhodope Mountains, running east-west across southern Bulgaria toward the Greek and Turkish borders, have a long history of fruit cultivation — particularly plums and wild fruits — and of home and commercial distilling. The Rhodope Rakia House has formalised traditional production practices into a commercial enterprise, producing plum, apple, and mixed-fruit rakias from mountain-grown fruit.
10. Menta Spirits, Plovdiv
Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city and a growing cultural hub with a well-developed old town, has attracted craft spirits entrepreneurs. Menta produces a range of botanical spirits including herb-infused rakia and a craft gin that uses wild mint (menta) from the Rhodope foothills as its hero botanical — giving the brand its name and its distinctive character. The distillery operates as part of Plovdiv's broader artisanal food and drink scene and runs public tastings from its production site.