Bulgaria anticipates a big wine grape yield of high quality in 2014, according to Ivan Pachev, Director of the Pleven-based National Institute of Viticulture and Oenology.

Pachev, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, informed that it had been a good winter for vines, with no frost damage.

He said that the optimistic forecast would be fulfilled if winegrowers observed cultivation techniques.

Pachev boasted about a recent uptick in interest in domestic grape varieties by grape growers.

He recommended the new varieties created by the Institute, stressing that practice had shown that they were cold-hardy and resistant to downy mildew and other diseases.

Pachev said that the fact that the graft nurseries produced by the Pleven-based Institute had been sold out testified to the substantial interest in domestic varieties.