Dilyana Vassileva, co-owner & winemaker, and Mariana Galabova, winemaker & oenologist, worked together to build and craft ENSO wines. The project started as a craft distillery of Bulgarian Rakia (grape brandy) among several partners, including Dilyana. The group wanted to produce Rakia from high quality, organic, minimal intervention wines. Through this idea and journey, Dilyana connected with Mariana through Plovdiv’s Viticulture & Winemaking University, where Mariana studied oenology. Both Mariana and Dilyana shared a passion and interest in a pure style of winemaking. They came to love the wines they produced for distillation. Thus, ENSO wines were created. The name ENSO is inspired by the Japanese word meaning circular form. For the two of them, ENSO is the moment when the mind lets the spirit free to create.

The group owns two vineyards, 15 ha total. One is located in the Thracian Valley and the other on the Black Sea Coast. The Muscat Ottonel vineyards are located on the low, hilly slopes of the Balkan Mountain range and Sredna Gora, in the Thracian valley, near the village of Lesichovo, between 250-350 m above sea level. The Topolnitsa River crosses the village and is a leading factor for the mild microclimate. The vines are grown organically and are fertilized with manure and inter-row grass planting.

For the orange wine, they identified a parcel located on mostly alluvial soils characterized by water permeability. The presence of tree and shrub vegetation at one end of the plot, as well as the proximity of a water channel on the other, helps to retain humidity in the soil.

The viognier vineyard is located just 6 miles from the Black Sea coast, some 130m above sea level, not far from the picturesque cape of Kaliakra. The climate is temperate, and the soil is rich and nutritious, with extensive humus content. The constant breezes from the sea are the reason behind the typical hint of salinity on the palate of the viognier wines.