I suppose the main reason we visited the Novacella Abbey was to visit the winery, or at least it was my main reason. Since ancient times, the abbey has produced high-quality wines. Due to the altitude and latitude of Varna, white grapes are the major grapes. But they also produce some good red grapes, Pinot Noir above all, but the reds are produced in vineyards that are further down in the valley and more suited for red grapes.

Wine is still produced within the abbey complex. They also have a wine bar-restaurant. It was my kind of abbey.

The grapes and vineyards impressed me more than the wine-making and the wine, so I'll show more vineyard photos. The first two photos were taken from the abbey parking lot, just to show that the area is very vineyard oriented.

After visiting the abbey, the church, and the library, we walked out through a back wall archway to see some of the abbey's own vineyards. It was late October and the vineyards were beautiful. In the second photo, the rock wall on the left surrounds the abbey.

Our abbey guide sat us down in an ancient cellar tasting room. She gave us lots of information about the wines that we tasted, about the grapes, and all such information including the history of wines here in the abbey. We tasted three wines.