📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Bulgarian Wine Giant
- 🌍 Origin: A highly prized heirloom variety with roots in Bulgaria, popularized among Russian seed collectors (like V. Redko). The original name is Vinnyi Bolgarskiy Velikan.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall). Very vigorous vines that can easily reach 10 ft (3 m) in a greenhouse, often draped over the ceiling crossbars. Handles pruning to 2 or 3 main stems very well.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Massive, flat-round (oblate) beefsteaks. The color is a unique, stunning dark crimson/deep mahogany-pink (the “wine” in its name). Average weights are 14-21 oz (400-600 g), but it frequently pumps out giants weighing up to 2.2 lbs (1 kg).
- 👅 Flavor: Top-tier. A true slicer tomato with dense, meaty flesh and practically no hollow spots. Consistently rated 5/5 by growers for its rich, sweet, and perfectly balanced old-fashioned flavor.
- ⚠️ Grower’s Note: Like many giant beefsteaks, it can be somewhat heat-sensitive. During extreme heatwaves, it may drop blossoms on the middle trusses, but it rebounds quickly and sets fruit heavily once temperatures drop.
Seeds from V. Redko. Tall, mid-season. The fruits are dark crimson, very large, ranging from 14 oz up to 2.2 lbs (400 g to 1 kg). Meaty and absolutely delicious, the flesh is completely solid when you break it open. My fruits turned out incredibly beautiful and tasty!
The yield wasn’t extremely high for me, but I will definitely be repeating it!
Edited Nov 3, 2014 by Pomidoroved
Seeds from V. Redko. Grew it in the greenhouse. Pruned it to 2 main stems. As of July 23, 2014, there were 11 fruits on the plant. The higher up the vine they are, the bigger they get. The taste is sweet.
Edited Nov 25, 2014 by Drosera
A very solid, excellent variety 👍 Liked it by all parameters: productive, beautiful, delicious. Seeds from Tanyusha (Eva77) 🌸🌸🌸
Repeated this variety this year. Grew in the greenhouse. Dropped some blossoms during the heatwave. Tasty, fruits are huge. I will definitely repeat this variety again some year 🙂.
Really loved this variety. Don’t have my notes handy to see who sent me the seeds. The tomatoes were 14-21 oz (400-600 g). Extremely tasty. The vine reached about 10 ft (3 m) tall, literally draping over the crossbars in the greenhouse. A definite favorite for my 2017 list. Yes, it dropped some blossoms in the heat, but then it bloomed again and loaded up with fruit heavily.
Grew it in 2016, outdoors in open ground. The bush was about 5.5 ft (1.7 m) tall. The fruits are gorgeous, uniform, incredibly tasty, sweet, juicy, and definitely not bland. I rated the taste a solid 5 out of 5! The variety turned out to be a heavy yielder. Seeds were from our fellow Rostov forum member Larisa (Lorik), huge thanks to her! 🌸
Grew Bulgarian Wine Giant in 2017, really loved the tomato… Huge, tasty, and the fruits are all perfectly uniform. Seeds were from Lyudmila (Ovechka). Thank you so much, Lyuda!!! All the tomatoes all the way to the top of the plant were huge, 10.5-21 oz (300-600 g).
First time growing Bulgarian Wine Giant, seeds from Nadya (Ogorod Larionovykh), thank you!! I absolutely loved the variety. Grew it to 2 main stems, it didn’t drop any blossoms, and reached all the way to the greenhouse roof. The lower fruits were huge like this, the upper ones slightly smaller. Loved the taste and juiciness.
Yes, an impressive tomato indeed.
Excellent variety! It was extremely productive for me, all the tomatoes were huge and delicious! Will definitely be repeating it!!! Just look at Ivanovochka’s photo and mine: the fruits are perfectly uniform in size!!! 😄
This is the biggest one:
Loved the taste and the yield was very good. I actually had to tie the trusses up with extra heavy-duty twine, because the cheap dollar-store twine just snapped under the weight. While I was turning the truss to take a photo, a few fell off and are lying next to it. 🙂 Grew outdoors in open ground, the plant wasn’t very tall, just a bit over 3.3 ft (1 m).
Seeds from Lyudmila Ovechka. Thanks 🌺
Edited Nov 25, 2018 by Vladvlad
Very delicious, a true slicer tomato—I almost felt bad chopping it up for a salad. We just ate thick slices of it plain, without salt or any dressings.
Seeds from Nadine, huge thanks!
It absolutely blew me away with its unique deep mahogany-crimson color!!! I have never seen a color quite like this before 😘! The taste is worthy, mid-late season, vigorous bush. I pruned it to 2 stems, it didn’t skip a single blossom, the fruits were perfectly uniform weighing 14-21 oz (400-600 g), and I’d rate the yield an A- (4.5/5). No photos. This variety is a fairy tale! Help, I’m obsessed, I want to see this color again and again!!!
Yay! I grew a fruit weighing 1.9 lbs (866 g) this year 🎊
Bulgarian Wine Giant. An excellent representative of pink beefsteaks 👍 Indeterminate, grew in the greenhouse pruned to 2 stems, fruits are extremely tasty, weighing up to 1.1 lbs (500 g).
Edited Sep 29, 2020 by Svetikk
Planted it in 2019. A very worthy variety! Indeterminate, pruned it to three main stems, it was quite productive and tasty for me!
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Tried growing it to 3 stems this year. I left a sucker below the second truss and didn’t prune anything else all the way up to the greenhouse ceiling. Rigged up a horizontal trellis/support for the tomatoes.
The weight of the very first fruit was 1.6 lbs (732 g).
A very interesting variety. The tomatoes turned out to be perfectly shaped, neat, flat-round beauties, large 10.5-21 oz (300-600 g). A delicious slicer variety.
