🥃 Grape rakia

Grape rakia is a strong Balkan spirit distilled from wine, whole fermented grapes or grape pomace. If you have met rakia in a Balkan restaurant, grape rakia is the version made from grapes: a strong spirit distilled from wine, whole fermented grapes or grape pomace. In Bulgaria it is grozdova rakia, distilled from wine; in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia it is called loza, lozovača or lozova rakia, while pomace rakia is komovica. It has at least 37.5% ABV; Bulgarian grozdova, at least 40%.

EU law has no separate category called rakia, so grape rakia falls into three different ones. Wine spirit (category 4) is distilled below 86% vol. with no added alcohol. Grape marc spirit (category 6) is komovica, a close relative of grappa and tsipouro. The EU register files Hrvatska loza as a fruit spirit (category 9): it is distilled from fermented crushed berries together with their skins and juice, without the stems.

Serbia's law on spirit drinks (Službeni glasnik 92/2015) follows the same three routes: “rakija od vina”, komovica from pomace, and “rakija od grožđa” among the fruit rakias. The technical file for Hrvatska loza (EU GI since 2012) describes a colourless drink: grapes with 10–15% sugar ferment for about 10 days at up to 25 °C, the distillate comes off at 60–75% vol., and it rests for at least 20 days in stainless steel or glass before bottling.

In Bulgaria, the Wine and Spirit Drinks Act (Art. 123) defines grozdova rakia as a wine spirit: one or two distillations below 65% vol., with no more than 75 litres of wine from 100 kg of grapes. The EU register protects 10 such names, two of them muscat; seven since 2005, three since 2018–2019.

Why it matters to you. The word rakia does not tell you what the drink is made from: “grozdova”, “loza” or “rakija od grožđa” mean grapes or wine, “komovica” means pomace. Only a protected name such as “Sungurlarska grozdova rakya” or “Hrvatska loza” guarantees origin; in Bulgaria a batch of grozdova rakia may only be sold with a laboratory test report and a certificate of authenticity. WHO: there is no safe level of alcohol.