Rating for Uva Nestum by the 5D Sensograph of placescases.com: 4 out of 5.

Last visit with friends in November 2017.

 

Seen                        

Felt                          

Heard                      

Smelled                   

Tasted                        

              

 

See…

… A beautiful new hotel (built 2016) with exquisite interior and exterior design, work by arch. Lilo Popov; 

… Fountains – colorful, dancing;

… Beautiful paintings on the walls, part of the exhibition “Touch” by artists from the region, including the famous Bulgarian painter Svetlin Rusev, who actually was born in Pleven, Bulgaria;

… Vines, pond, an outdoor pool and a little farm, including all sorts of poultry, as well as deer and rabbits;

… Exquisite design of the apartment, including the beautiful view from it;

… Thierry Mugler personal hygiene products in the bathroom; 

… Mediocre interior of restaurant- in complete dissonance with the high style of the hotel.

Uva Nestum Exterior

 Feel….

… Comfort and high style of the rooms– big fridge, Nespresso coffee machine with complement coffee and tea, bath robes with slippers;

… Greeting card with a customized welcome address with wine and fruit in the apartment;

… Two times a day housekeeping service– cleaning in the morning and preparation of the room for the night with a complimentary cake and a card, wishing you good night;

… A customized welcome address in the TV information menu, but only to the male part of the family, which already is discriminatory, it should be like in the card and include all guests, and why not children too (half a heart less in evaluation).

… Full-hearted Ms. Dimka- the technologist of the winery, who returned from her way home specifically for us, to show us the wine cellar, to tell us about the wines of  Uva Nestum – she likes her job, a true keeper of Bulgarian  traditional crafts and production.

… The industrious service of restaurants personnel- putting serious efforts to please the customers;

… We had to wait quite a while after check-in time 14:00 to enter our room, since it was not ready- Ms. Dimka’s presentation of the winery covered this failure;

… Only one massage therapist in the spa complex, therefore it’s almost impossible to get an appointment for massage;

… Thee dissonance between intentions for high level of the hotel and the reality of our holistic experience – the hotel may be very good and highly positioned, however, the mediocre restaurant food and style, the limited entertainment options and limited local wine production do not correspond to the inflated room pricing starting at EUR 160  for a double room to  EUR 280-384 for a suite for four member family. There should be much more value offered to the customers for such high prices.

 

Uva Nestum Winery and SPA

 

Listen…

… Mediocre one-man show live music in the restaurant, I thought that was already obsolete one person to sing half-heartedly out of fashion hits, playing pre-recorded music on a synthesizer.

 

Uva Nestum Panorama Suite

 

Smell…

… Dissonance between the scent of wine Uva Libre (a blend of Syrah and Ruby) during the tasting and later when we ordered it at dinner- it was exactly the aroma that grabbed my attention during the degustation, however, I could not figure out what went wrong, later when we had dinner it had totally different scent, taking into consideration that at both occasions the wine was from the same vintage.

 

Taste… 

…. The food in the restaurant wasn’t particularly impressive, corresponding to the level of an average-good restaurant- good French fries, not bad meatballs, very nice freshly baked bread;

… Very good and rich breakfast in the hotel, which presents the best traditional Bulgarian home made pastry, banitsa with spinach and cheese, a great pumpkin pie, mekitsi, doughnuts, pancakes, rolls- two types, all things made from the pastry maestrina in the kitchen. There were also traditional cold cuts but because of the high temperature in the room they had shrunk and oiled. There was cheese, eggs, fruit, vegetables, honey, juices, absolutely everything, and even two types of soup- both very delicious!

 

Uva Nestum Restaurant and Breakfast

 

Uva Nestum, means the grapes at Mesta. The name alludes to the wine production of the complex. The cellar is very small and produces a boutique quantity of wine, which is not distributed in supermarkets or in restaurants. The red varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Rubin. I appreciate the laudable efforts to work with traditional Bulgarian varieties like Rubin. Recently other traditional Bulgarian grape varieties were planted- Tamianka and Muscat and these are the only white varieties for now. It’s interesting how the winery will develop that trend. I really wish them to succeed!

The hotel is wonderful and there is a serious effort for a good level of service. However, the imitation of marble on the floor was a little too much for my taste. The carpet is very flat but somehow very soft.

We rented the Panorama suite. It was very spacious, with a large terrace, with beautiful views to the vineyards, swimming pools, fish ponds, farm, football field and tennis courts.

The hotel has a SPA, but only one masseur works there. There is a beautiful indoor and outdoor swimming pool.

Frankly, I don’t see what one can do at Uva Nestum for more than one night. The prices are very high and this makes it all the more pointless to stay on for longer.

The other negative remark is that the restaurant does not correspond to the intentioned high level of the hotel- they are two separate universes. Therefore, I recommend if you are staying in an apartment, to order room service with a bottle of red wine and dine without the mediocre live music and noise from the restaurant.

If you are curious to see this interesting hotel and you feel like spending discretionary budget, you can visit Uva Nestum. However, for the same money or less money, you can go to better places. If you want to visit a good winery with a hotel, type the word “winery” in the search menu and you will see which places I’ve rated highly in this category.

A: Gotse Delchev, 2900, Bulgaria

T: + 359 887 021 020, + 359 888 031 030

I: hospitality@uvanestum.com

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