Mission

We, the wine-makers from Bessa Valley, are inspired by this place as much as the Bessians were 2500 years ago. Now we are the Bessians. It is our destiny to grow the vines of the Valley and make great wine from their fruit year after year.

Everything we do is done with the greatest respect for the nature, the people, the vines and its fruit, and the wines. We do not hurry. We do not lose the harmony.

“I believe this is the philosophy of a Bordeaux resident – the intelligent collection of different sorts provides and brings a richer, more complex and harmonic wine. Today, many wines are sold which are labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay… However, this is not what my wine culture is about.”
Count Stephan von Neipperg

Key figures

Count Stephan von Neipperg was born in June 1957 in Schwaigern, Germany.
He graduated in Business, Economics and Politics in Paris, and later Winery and Oenology in Montpelier.
He is the owner of six wine cellars in Bordeaux: Chateau Canon La Gaffeliere (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe), La Mondote (Saint-Emilion), Clos de l'Oratoire (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe), Chateau Peyreau (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru), Chateau d'Aiguilhe (Cotes de castillon), and Clos Marsalette (Pessac-Leognan).
The Neipperg family has been growing vines and making wines for 800 years.
>> More about the Count Neipperg wineries in Bordeaux

Dr. Karl-Heinz Hauptmann was born in August 1960 in Gelhausen, Germany.
Co-founder of Europe Capital Management – a company for corporative finance and investment management with a seat in the Czech Republic. He was Executive Manager of Merrill Lynch in London and Vice-President of the London Bankers Trust International.
Dr. Hauptmann is one of the main shareholders of Bessa Valley Winery.

Marc Dworkin was born in February 1961 in Paris.
He graduated in Biochemistry in Paris and Oenology in Bordeaux. He worked for famous French wineries like Chateau Clarke, Cote Montpezat, Chateau Larmande and Chateau Bellefont-Belcier for seventeen years. Marc Dworkin arrived in Bulgaria in 1999 as a consultant, and contributed for the renewing of the Bulgarian wines.
He is currently General Manager of Bessa Valley.


Alexander Kanev was born in December 1971 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
He graduated in Oenology in Changins University in Switzerland. He worked in several wineries in Bulgaria and Switzerland before he was hired as a consultant on vines and wine by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
He has been Executive Manager of Bessa Valley since 2001.

Marc Dworkin	Count Stephan von Neipperg	Alexander Kanev	Dr. Karl-Heinz Hauptmann