Our story

Our story is about an unique idea, or one could say a dream, and its implementation in  real life is a wonderful project, which became famous in Macedonia and around the world.

Popova Kula was created with love and strong passion and it is here to preserve the tradition and culture of fine wine production, our local food and genuine hospitality.

Location

Popova Kula Winery and vineyards are located on the southern slope of Veliko Brdo, west of the beautiful town of Demir Kapija near the E-75 highway. Demir Kapija Valley is located in the southeastern part of the Tikvesh wine region, which is part of the Povardarie Wine Region. The oldest archeological findings prove that people in this area cultivated vines and produced wine in the 13th century BC. Demir Kapija valley has excellent climatic and soil conditions for growing grapes. The kingdom of King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic extended to the territory of present-day Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, including the Adriatic coast and the Pannonian Plain. With this, King Alexander had numerous opportunities to choose locations for planting vineyards throughout the kingdom. But following the recommendations of his wise advisors, he made the right decision and chose the micro-location of Popova Kula as an ideal location for his vineyards. When we first came to this place we could feel that this was the ideal location for our vineyards and wine cellar. Anyone that has visited us understands this feeling.

Our name

In line with the tradition and historical heritage of the region, our winery got its name by the name  of the location which itself is named after  a legendary tower, Popova Kula, which once served as an important checkpoint on the ancient Roman road that passes near our location. Popova Kula was a significant landmark in the region, but unfortunately it was destroyed. However, the site itself is called Popova Kula, which was our inspiration for the construction of the building but also for the name of our winery.

Construction

Popova Kula Winery is a "greenfield" investment. We started the construction of the winery on October 8, 2004 and by St.Mary’s day, August 28, 2005, we were ready for the first harvest and processing of the first grapes. After the completion of the first phase we had to wait another two years before starting to work with wine tourism. Finally,  on the day of St. Trifun, February 14, 2009 we completed the construction of the restaurant and the first 11 rooms of the hotel. We completed the second building and an additional 22 rooms of the hotel in 2015. We completed the summer terrace restaurant in 2020.

Applied technology

We use small tanks for wine fermentation in order to be able to control and regulate the temperature in each tank separately during each stage of fermentation. We also use barrels made of American, French, Hungarian and Macedonian oak with different degrees of toasting. As part of the winery, we have warehouses and box pallets for storing and maturing bottled wine in controlled temperature conditions. Although we are a small winery, we have our own laboratory in which we perform basic analysis of wine and grapes.

Vineyards

Macedonia has three wine regions, the most important of which is the central region, ie. Povardarie. The most famous and most important wine part of that region is Tikvesh. Demir Kapija Valley as a wine sub-region is again the southernmost part of Tikvesh region. A characteristic of the Demir Kapija Valley is that we have a mix of continental Mediterranean climate. Continental climate prevaila in the region of Tikvesh with Mediterranean climate that is on the Demir Kapija gorge.

Popova Kula terroir

Within the Demir Kapija valley, Popova Kula is the name of the specific area where the Popova Kula Winery is located. Here at 182m above sea level we have over 280 sunny days a year, lime soil, slightly sloped terrain with south-southwest exposure where rain and snow are easily drained and where we have prolonged exposure of vineyards to the sun. W           e have specific wind patterns which are unique to our region of Dmir Kapija. The daily warm south winds coming from of Demir Kapija gorge blow directly onto our vineyards. That contributes to the health of our vineyards. In the evening, even on the hotest days of August, we have a slightly colder wind that descends from Kozuf mountain and cools the vineyards. Here we get healthy grapes, excellent sugars, acids and a wealth of deep flavours and aromas with recognizable and very distinctive minerals that is characteristic and unique for only our area - micro-location.We have our vineyards of:
- Stanushina
- Vranec 1
- Vranec 2
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Zilavka 1

Beshvichki Livadki area

Within the Demir Kapija Valley is the area - the micro-location Besvichki Livadki at 400 m above sea level, west of the Popova Kula Winery. There we also have lime soil that is easily drained but, which has a northern exposure and with280 sunny days gives excellent results for white varieties and Prokupec. Here we also have another specific wind pattern with a predominance of cooler winds from Kozuf Mountain that cool the vineyards well, especially in the evening, which contributes to their health and the richness of tartaric acids that are high compared to the average in Macedonia.This arear gives high quality  grapes with rich aromas from which we make white wines that age very well, which is a remarkable feature that is not found in many areas. Here are our vineyards of:

- Temjanika
- Chardonnay
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Muscat Ottonel
- Zilavka 2
- Prokupec 

Harvest

We produce wine from 9 different grape varieties that ripen at different times, starting from mid-August until the second week of October. We organize the harvest of each individual variety in moment when they have have reached their peak ripeness. The harvest is done in such a way that in one day of the grapes are harvested from one vineyard and it starts in the early morning hours. The grapes are harvested by hand so that the grapes are not crushed during the harvest process. We use small crates also so that the bunches of grapes are not crushed. The crates are washed before and after harvest. As soon as the grapes are picked, packed in crates, they are transported to the winery. Because the vineyards are close to the cellar, the transport is short, so the possibility of crushing the bunches of grapes during transport is minimized. With such organization and implementation of the harvest and transport we get grapes that are of excellent quality and very important - it is not crushed, ie. the grape juice has not been spilled during harvesting or transport. That allows us to to have processes that we can control.

Our philosophy

The word globalization describes part of our philosophy. In the wine industry this process of globalization has highlighted some grape varieties, such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sauvignon Blanc, as a result of their outstanding characteristics. We are also fans of these varieties and we produce wine from them. However, we strongly believe that locally and regionally we have varieties that have excellent characteristics and that the wine from them could be enjoyed by consumers from around the world. Today we are the only producer in the world of wines from the autochthone Macedonian variety Stanushina. We are also one of the few wineries in the Balkans that produce wine from the varieties Prokupec, Zilavka and Temjanika. It is no less important to mention that we also produce wine from the Vranec variety and like other Macedonian producers we dream of the day when Vranec will be promoted on the world markets as a great red wine. We invite you to try these wines. We are sure you will be pleasantly surprised. We have the same philosophy in the hotels and the restaurants. While we try to achieve the highest hospitality standards and the HACCP system, we will serve you with our most beautiful traditional meals, as well as food from various international cuisines. We believe that supporting the local economy is essential not only for the municipality, but also for our guests. With locally sourced ingredients we prepare delicious specialties tailored to our guests.

Stanushina

We have saved Stanushina grape variety from extinction. Literally. It is a Macedonian autochthone variety, and it is one of the oldest varieties in the world. During the socialistic times (1945-1992) wineries in Macedonia went to work with international varieties and they started to lower the price for the Stanushina Grape. Thus, the grape growers abandoned it.  In the original plan for this winery, we had the idea of bringing back this great variety and we coined our mission - to save it and promote it around the world.

Stanushina grape variety does not require the same attention in the vineyard as the other varieties. It is ideally adapted to the climate in Macedonia and has a strong resistant vine. But once the grapes are picked and are in the winery, the situation is completely different. In addition to technology and applied knowledge, it takes a lot of care, passion and love to produce great Stanushina wine. And the production of white Stanushina is exponentially more difficult. For more than 18 years we were the only winery that produces Stanushina wine.

In the last few years other wineries have started to work with it and more wineries from Macedonia are joining in.  We can proudly say that our mission to save it is completed.

Going Organic

The unique characteristics of both micro locations where we have planted our vineyards give us opportunity to go organic. And as of 2025 harvest we are certified Organic – third year in conversion.

Our team

All the above tells you everything about what kind of people we are. A team of caring, honest, knowledgeable, hardworking people with vision, strong passion and will to produce fine Macedonian wines, rakija and Mastika to present the Macedonian hospitality to the world