Villa Yustina
Villa Yustina
4.5
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
About
Villa Yustina is situated in the village of Ustina on the foot of Yakata, the Rhodope Mountain in Thracian valley, 26 km away from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The winery location is specifically chosen, because Plovdiv region is among the few with a significant wine history. In this area, you can hear many tales about Thracians and their wine, ancient rites and mysteries. Herodotus described the local Thracians as warlike tribe with an independent spirit, that undertook the difficult task to be guardians of the sanctuary of Dionysus. It is beleived that the ancient Thracian capital - Besapara was located near Ustina.
The beginning of vine growing and wine making in this area was set by the Thracians. They are also considered to be the best winemakers. People produced wine 5000 years ago on the Balkans, which is a proof that the Thracians were the first to transform grapes into wine. The first vines were brought by them from the Middle East to what is now southern Bulgaria. According to Homer, the most famous wine with the rich aroma and full body was from Thracia.
At the end of 2006 the boutique winery Villa Yustina was established and started to process grapes from its own vineyards into terroir wines. The mission of Villa Yustina is to develop quality wines from Yakata, the Rhodope Mountain and wine tourism in a region with rich heritage and magnificent scenery.
Villa Yustina wines are divided into three lines - VILLA YUSTINA, 4 SEASONS and MONOGRAM.
VILLA YUSTINA is the line presenting the best of vintage blends or cuvees, designed to find an excellent balance between price and quality. In it you can feel the diverse and colorful imagination of our technologists, who transform grapes into the divine drink we all love. In this line you will find our Red Cuvee - a blend of Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Our Cuvee was awarded Bronze medal at FHT, Thailand, Gold medal from MUNDUS VINI, Gemany and Bronze medal at Decanter, United Kingdom. Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are intertwined in the Blanc -
awarded Gold medal at the biggest wine contest in North America - Selections Mondiales des Vins, Canada. Rose is a blend with Syrah and Cabernet Franc - given Bronze medal at BIWC 2013 and also won the "Debut" and "Rose Cavalier" awards at Rose Wine Expo.
4 SEASONS line shows pure varietial characteristics of our wines and tells you a little bit more about our terroir. Here you will find the already gained significant popularity in Bulgaria Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and also the white wines Sauvignon Blanc and Traminer. This line reveals the best of our own vineyards. In following harvests 4 SEASONS will also show you the charm and charisma of other varieties.
MONOGRAM is the boutique line of carefully selected grapes of Villa Yustina. The wines have matured in French and Bulgarian oak barrels and are in limited quantities in order to show the best of the winery. Here you can find a very interesting blend with Mavrud and Rubin, which became almost a synonym of our brand. It is a worthy representative of Bulgaria in the international wine scene, created by two Bulgarian varieties and matured in 100% Bulgarian oak barrels. The wine was awarded three consecutive gold medals for vintage 2007, 2008 and current vintage 2009 at the competition Vino Balkanika, assessing only local Balkan varieties. In addition it was awarded Bronze medal from FHT, Thailand, Gold medal from MUNDUS VINI, Germany with the very impressive 93 points and Silver medal at Vinalies Internationales, France. In the other bottles labeled MONOGRAM you can find also pure varietial Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and the very attractive Chardonnay Barrique which won Bronze medal at Chardonnay du Monde, France. Mavrud & Rubin and Chardonnay Barrique won the Gold Medals at BIWC 2013, while the other two pure varietial Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were awarded Silver Medals at the same competition
In order to satisfy even the most particular wine lovers Villa Yustina has already it's first attempts for making natural sparkling wines. That takes us even more closer to the global models for boutique wineries.
As a proof and recognition for wine excellence the chief winemaker of Villa Yustina - Vassil Stoyanov, won the prize "Enologist of 2011" after a secret vote among the Bulgarian enologists. This award is the culmination of years of hard work and gives us confidence that we are moving in the right direction.
To ensure the wines quality Villa Yustina takes special care to the vineyards. The French and world vineyard leader "Mercier" was selected for consultant. Currently the winery has 25 hectares of own vineyards with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Traminer, Aligote, Semillon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The vineyard is located in Gorkata area with southern slope and with an average altitude of 300 meters and a wonderful view to the mountains. Central Thracian region, where Ustina is located has a humid continental climate. Although the area soils are mainly clay - suitable for red varieties, most of our vineyards are actually calcareous - providing excellent conditions for white varieties. So Villa Yustina is able to achieve excellent balance between solid reds and very attractive and stylish white varieties. This is very difficult in southern Bulgaria, which is well known for its traditionally good red wines.
At the same time Villa Yustina is working on a new project, which is going to double the area of their vineyards. The new area is planned to be planted with red varieties such as Mavrud, Rubin and Petit Verdo. In order to provide an year-round employment of its employees, Villa Yustina has also 20 hectares of fruit orchard.
Villa Yustina as a project began simultaneously with the construction of own vineyards. The boutique winery has a capacity to process 300 tons own grapes. It has a cellar for wine aging in oak barrels and barriques. Villa Yustina has a modern tasting room for 50 people, and at the final stage of the project there will be several guest houses within a beautiful park and a shop, where tourists will be able to buy wine, fine arts and craft works.
According to the French standard Villa Yustina replaces 1/3 of its oak barrels each year. Seven leading suppliers from France and two from Bulgaria are used so that variety and quality can be guaranteed. Thanks to its close partnership with Tomika-Metal SA, Villa Yustina is one of the most modern wineries in Bulgaria. It is fully equipped with the finest cellar technology of new generation. The winery is equiped with tangential filter and fermenters type "Eureka". The celler has decided to do microvinification using modern technological means and equipment. There is a possibility for full control of the whole process. It begins by hand picking grapes, sorting with a vibrating trailer, manually sorting, possibility for cold maceration, fermentation in small volumes with excellent process control and various fermentation techniques, according to the different grape varieties.
At this point of time our first guest house is already done and Villa Yustina is able to host your visit and be your home away from home. The house has 3 double rooms each with private bathroom. Soon several additional houses will be built within a beautiful park next to the winery. During your stay you can see historical landmarks and the beauty of nature around Ustina. The area has huge amount of interesting sights. Here is Hisarlaka - a Thracian fortress, which includes one of the largest and most beautiful rock towers in the Rhodope Mountain. On a later stage the stronghold was called Justina, in honor of the Emperor Justinian. Near Ustina there are also the Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv, Bachkovo Monastery, an ancient Thracian sanctuary - Belintash, the Biosphere Reserve - Red Wall. The exceptional nature and ancient history of the region is complemented by the Ustina waterfalls and the ruins of the Red Church - a rarely beautiful temple, nowadays described as one of the masterpieces of the early Christian architecture in Europe.
For the true nature lovers, Villa Yustina is building several eco paths planed in a way to reveal the beauty of the Rhodope Mountains. You will be able to enjoy fishing in our private lake surrounded by an incredibly beautiful scenery near our vineyard as well. So except our proposal for a luxury wine tourism there are available also bike tours, hunting, photo, rural and cultural tourism and of course pure relaxing with a glass of wonderful wine from Villa Yustina.
Thank you for your time.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
82 reviews
Excellent
68
Very good
8
Average
2
Poor
1
Terrible
3
Анастасия А
3 contributions
Nov 2022 • Friends
We had a Christmas dinner/party with 18 people. The hosts were not flexible with the menu - we had to preorder one menu for everyone. Single order per card, out of the preordered list, is considered complication. We were informed at the hotel that we are allowed to stay at the restaurant until 23 o’clock- after 23 o’clock evening at the complex is closed - so we were supposed to go to bed!
I had a nice single room, very clean, but with an unpleasant smell in the room.
I had a nice single room, very clean, but with an unpleasant smell in the room.
Written November 23, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ricardo
Aberdeen, UK132 contributions
Sep 2023 • Family
We arrived as guests for a friend's wedding at the Villas which initial impressions, we were extremely impressed at how beautiful this place is. After checking in, we went up to the room to drop off our bags. The room was a lovely size, clean and had a nice balcony which you could relax on. However it was missing a cot which we needed for our 4 month old son. When I went back to reception, the gentleman behind the counter mentioned that they weren't informed that a baby would be in the room. Now taking a complete guess when looking on his check-in sheet, 'Bebe' was written as part of our room booking which I can only assume means baby in Bulgarian. Once pointing this out to the gentleman, he mentioned that all cleaning staff have now finished so he couldn't get a cot just now. I mentioned as long as there is a cot in the room by the time we return from the wedding party that evening then that would be fine (all he needed to do was get a cot from the store and put it in the room or leave it outside the door which I explained to him). Upon arrival later that night, there was no cot in the room. This did not come as a surprise as he just did not care when speaking to him earlier on in the day. It wasn't his problem...he seemed to think it was just mine. As reception was not 24 hours, we were stuck when we arrived as there was no member of staff anywhere to resolve this issue.
Although the place was lovely (apart from the plaster falling from the ceiling in the room), I could not recommend the accommodation to anyone based on the experience we had. This would have easily been a 5 star review if the staff at the hotel never put us in a position where we did not have a suitable bed for our baby and showed some understanding and care. Very disappointed.
Although the place was lovely (apart from the plaster falling from the ceiling in the room), I could not recommend the accommodation to anyone based on the experience we had. This would have easily been a 5 star review if the staff at the hotel never put us in a position where we did not have a suitable bed for our baby and showed some understanding and care. Very disappointed.
Written September 21, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
_BuJlbo_
2 contributions
Oct 2021 • Friends
The wine is superb. The service is excellent. The experince is the type of unforgettable one that urges you to come back. An uncut gem waiting to be discovered... or maybe it's best to stay hidden. You have to live it.
Written October 23, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
rado_milkov
Plovdiv, Bulgaria2 contributions
Nov 2013 • Friends
Villa Ustina is a great small winery in the village Ustina near by Rodopi mountain. The people there always smile and ready to show you the vineyards and the cellar. I've been there several times for tastings and will come back. I strongly recommend the Cabernet Franc 2012 and the famous Monogram Mavrud x Rubin blend.
Written August 18, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PPetrov81
Plovdiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria9 contributions
Jun 2014 • Business
Villa Yustina is a very good winery located near Plovdiv. It has the most modern technology of wine-making. The wine of Villa Yustina is excellent and if I can say it is a "true wine" made from grapes from their own vineyards. If you go to Villa Yustina you should visit also their own modern vineards called "park-vineyard"- a very beautiful place with a wonderful view to the Rhodope mountains and the surroundings. I recommend the winery and their wines for all wine lovers and wine professionals - you should taste them! The staff is of proffesionals and there are an excellent conditions for wine tourism as well.
Written August 12, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hana42
Brno, Czech Republic11 contributions
Jun 2014 • Friends
Villa Yustina is very pleasant small winery with excellent wines. The winery is newly built on the old site in a small village of Ustina. I visited the winery twice for tasting - in 2013 and 2014. They use very modern equipment for making wines. Their red wine Monogram Mavrdud+Rubin is wonderful. The winery makes lots of events and winetastings, participates exhibitions. It is really place worth visit!
Written July 1, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
James M
Woking, UK82 contributions
May 2015 • Friends
Arrived here and were taken off to a tour of the vineyards which are situated within view of the Rhodope mountains and other lovely scenery around it. The workings of the vineyard were explained well and the we were taken back to the villa and shown round where the wine is made in this modern professional operation with any questions answered fully. Then on to the wine tasting and the stories about the wines and area around the winery. We tasted a variety of wines with some lovely cured meats and cheese. All of the wine was of a high quality and would have purchased some if we could have taken it home but they do ship it if you want.
Very enjoyable visit and a great way to spend a few hours.
Very enjoyable visit and a great way to spend a few hours.
Written June 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
KJonD
Sofia, Bulgaria17 contributions
Aug 2015 • Couples
We called Villa Yustina the day before our arrival to see if a visit was possible, and it was. The following day, we called about an hour before our arrival to give them some time to prepare. Upon arrival, we were met by a young woman who took us through the winery, explaining what happened and where, wines made, etc. She offered to guide us through the vineyard, but we opted out as it was blazing hot. The tour was interesting and informative.
We ended the tour in the tasting room. One can purchase a 3 or 5 wine tasting - we took the 5. We sat at a table with a few glasses and a plate of cheese and sliced meat for snacks. Vasco, the wine maker joined us and spoke about the winery and the wines. He is a very intelligent and personal individual, clearly knowledgeable and dedicated to his craft - and what a fine craftsman he is. We went through a few whites, a rose and a few reds. Villa Yustina has several top notch wines, and we managed to enjoy our fair share in the excellent company of the folks from the vineyard.
Of course, wine is available for purchase for reasonable prices as well.
It was so hot that going on a tour of a vineyard was the last thing my wife and I wanted to do that day. However, it turned out to be a very enjoyable and memorable time thanks to the fine wine and fine people at Villa Yustina.
We ended the tour in the tasting room. One can purchase a 3 or 5 wine tasting - we took the 5. We sat at a table with a few glasses and a plate of cheese and sliced meat for snacks. Vasco, the wine maker joined us and spoke about the winery and the wines. He is a very intelligent and personal individual, clearly knowledgeable and dedicated to his craft - and what a fine craftsman he is. We went through a few whites, a rose and a few reds. Villa Yustina has several top notch wines, and we managed to enjoy our fair share in the excellent company of the folks from the vineyard.
Of course, wine is available for purchase for reasonable prices as well.
It was so hot that going on a tour of a vineyard was the last thing my wife and I wanted to do that day. However, it turned out to be a very enjoyable and memorable time thanks to the fine wine and fine people at Villa Yustina.
Written August 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ognyan A
Plovdiv, Bulgaria5 contributions
Jun 2015 • Couples
An amazing piece of Bulgarian land with some lovely people. Here you come in as a guest but go as a friend. We wish everyone there at Villa Yustina Winery the best of luck , best of wine and best of friends. From the Andreevi family.
Written June 21, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
sequ0iac
Ophir, New Zealand2 contributions
Jul 2015 • Business
Turned up without booking. was greeting by a wonderful host, shown around the vineyard and winery. The tasting was great, tried many different wines and nibbles for a very reasonable price. Well recommended.
Written July 16, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
we are 11 people who want to visit on July 11 2017 for a visit.
Written June 5, 2017
You are welcome! Would you please give us some more details?
Looking forward seeing you
Written June 8, 2017
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