Are you in Prague this year, love wine and want to get into Moravian wines, but don’t know where to start? We’re happy you’re here. First of all, good job you for knowing about Moravian wines. They are hardly ever exported (the entire wine production of the Czech Republic satisfies only about 40% of its consumption) and definitely worth looking into. Second, good job finding your way here. Because we have a few ideas. A starter pack, if you will.
We won’t lie to you: this list is heavily biased by our very own Moravian wine tours and whatever it is we taste on our explorations of the Moravian wine country. But we do believe that the winemakers we visit are the best we can visit, and we choose them very, very carefully to be a true representation of what great Moravian wines and winemakers can be. (BTW, if you want to book a spot, don’t hesitate - it’s an awesome weekend out of Prague that sells out quick and is always guided by Jan, who happens to write these words.)
So without hesitation, here we go - a few wines you should try in Prague while you’re here.
Vinařství Petr Kočařík: Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
It’s funny that when you’re talking to winemakers, climate change is not a matter open to discussion: it’s just an undisputable fact of life. The old “wisdom” was that Moravia, one of the northernmost wine countries anywhere, is great for whites and not so good for reds. Well, that’s just nonsense. If you want to be wowed by a Moravian red, just order this 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon - not your typical variety for Moravia - by Mr Kočařík... while they still last. Having a red Cabernet Sauvignon from this winery, which is very careful about its brand and the high standards associated with it, is rare - in the last ten years, they have only released three red vintages, and the 2018 is the best one. (The rest of the vintages, they just make a fantastic rose Cab Sav if they feel the red would not be delicious.)
Mr Kočařík is hands down our favorite Moravian winemaker. Started as a hobby winemaker and now still operating from home and producing some 10 to 12 thousand bottles a year and not wishing to expand, Mr Kočařík is a natural winemaker without any of the trendiness, “funkiness” or shock value sometimes associated with natural winemaking today. His wines are traditional, well made and free of any excesses. You should also try his Traminer (with longer skin contact and hypnotising notes of rosewater), Hibernal (everybody looks down on that resistant grape... until they have Mr Kočařík’s version) and the red Odměra, a fruity “table red” that is a reminder of what traditional Moravian reds tasted like in the old days, while being immensely fun and drinkable.
BTW, we are probably the only non-professionals allowed to have tastings with Mr Kočařík, and his sometimes brutal honesty and clarity of expression are one of the highlights of the tour.
Plenér: CMYK
We wanted to visit Dominika Černohorská of Plenér winery because we wanted to show a female winemaker in a field traditionally dominated by men. But this isn’t one of your derogatory “Female Chef of the Year” category - Dominika is a fantastic winemaker in her own right, gender aside, avoiding all dogmatic divide between the conventional and natural winemaking. She just wants to make great wine true to the terroir and history of that terroir, and also have fun in the process. And she succeeds - her wines are clean, crisp, fun, and challenge all dogmatics views of the present and the past. And her cellar in Pavlov that mixes traditional layout with modern art is the coolest in all Moravia.
Why CMYK? Because you can find it in many restaurant. After all, it was designed as “house wine” for the restaurant business, modelled after the “one-liter Müller Thurgau” that dominated the food industry under Communism. Dominika wanted to follow on that tradition, but with a modern sensibility. The result is a non-complicated, super fun, don’t-think-about-it wine that is very approachable yet still way above the rest in terms of quality of wine making and vineyard keeping. The same actually applies to her Frankovka, aka Blaufränkisch, which shoiuld resemble the light, fruity and drinkable reds of the Czech yesteryears.
(As a fun experiment, try her Riesling next to Sonberk’s riesling of the same vintage - Dominika buys grapes from Sonberk, so this just proves that you can make two very different wines from the same produce.)
Pavel Springer: Merlot Family Reserve 2018
The visit to the Springer winery is one of the highlights of our Moravian wine tour: this is what Czechs imagine when you say a Moravian wine cellar. A small cellar in the middle of a cellars lane behind the village, with seating outside and a view, without traffic... and loads and loads of wine. And also barrel tastings, which is unique, super fun and very educational at the same time. And Mr Springer and his two sons (lovingly dubbed by our guests as the Franco brothers to reflect their good looks) are the perfect hosts, not shy to taste every barrel and open every bottle. (”That’s why we don’t have an archive,” says Mr Springer, half-jokingly.)
What sets the Springers apart is just the sheer quality of their wines. Seated in Bořetice, their forte is in the reds. While they are most famous for Skale, their Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blends, their Frankovka (Blaufrankisch) are delicious too, and their Pinots are lovely... and never enter retail - the 600 bottles or so only go to private clients. But the crown takes the Merlot 2018 Family Reserve. Unfiltered, unclarified, aged in French barrique barrels, this is as good as it gets for a Moravian red. Again, Mr Springer (who shared a desk in high school class with Mr Kočařík, btw) says he could not have never been able to make a red like this when he started some 30 years ago. If there’s a silver lining to climate change, it’s in this bottle.
Vinařství Gala: Chardonnay 2016 sparkling
There’s one major problem when we visit the Galas at the foot of the Pálava hill, the most iconic piece of land in the Mikulovsko sub-region: nobody wants to leave. You really think there must be some Nazi gold involved, because everything is so damn perfect: the Galas are strikingly good-looking, the kids are self-publishing their own book (yup), they have the cutest dog Lotti and a cat and baby lamb in one of the nicest wine houses that looks like it was transported to the Pálava from a fancy nordic design magazine... and that’s before you notice the horses prancing around free before Mr Gala uses them to plow the vineyards. And then there’s the wines.
And the wines look expensive, and taste expensive. Mr Gala became famous because he made the highest-awarded Czech wine according to the Decanter magazine (98/100 points for his 2015 Welschriesling - and if there’s a classic wine and terroir from the Czech Republic, it’s the Welschriesling from the Pálava hill), but all his wines are classy, pure and complex at the same time. But we always go for his bubbles. The Galas have always been famous for them. For the longest time, we really loved - and drank a lot of - his rosé Pinot / Merlot blend, but right now our choice would be his classic Chardonnay. Beautifully balanced, creamy mouthfeel, crisp acidity yet fuller body. As far as Czech sparklings go, this is perfection. Get the whole bottle. You’ll finish it easy.
Vinařství Marada: Madam Pinot
Our visits to Mr Marada are memorable for two reasons. Number one, he’s one of the winemakers hit heavily by the early 2022 tornado (which destroyed a lot of his production facilities and nearly all his archived and warehoused wines), and seeing that destruction for your own eyes is striking. Number two, as the leader of a famous dulcimer folk band that plays gigs ate Czech embassies around the world, he forces you to sing Moravian folk songs in the cellar, which makes for truly awkward and/or bonding experiences, as our Czech guests struggle with the lyrics and melody and our foreign guests just hum along politely.
Mr Marada is a natural winemaker (as the son-in-law of Mr Osička, the icon of Moravian natural winemakers, he must be) famous for still and sparkling wines. His single-fermentation pet nats, like the popular Legally Blonde, are easy to drink and funky at the same time, but our heart goes to Madam Pinot, a Champagne-style blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Binot Blanc, Riesling and Chardonnay that aged sur lie for 15 months. If you can’t find it, try their Révovous, sparkling riesling made in the very same way. And try to sing a Moravian folk song when you finish it. Make Mr Marada proud.
Sonberk: Pálava
It’s funny what counts as a “big winery” here in the Czech Republic. Sonberk winery produces short of 150 thousand bottles a year, which makes it the biggest winery we visit by far. Yet, it is one of the few “big wineries” that is universally respected by the smaller winemakers we tend to visit - their architecturally awarded winery is smack in the middle of the vineyards, and despite the size, they pick all grapes manually and the vineyards are organic. Also, it’s the perfect “Instagram winery” thanks to the splendid view of the Pálava hill from the winery’s terrace.
Their portfolio is just the right size: focused, but still offering lots of variety. Worth noting is their Merlot, the only red in the portfolio, or the noble rot and straw wines, which are sweeter but retain lots of character. While their flagship is definitely the riesling, we want to point your attention to Pálava. Crossed in the Czech Republic in the 1970s to combine the powers and qualities of the Traminer and Müller Thurgau, Pálava is traditionally associated with sweeter, lower-quality wines. However, Sonberk’s dry, high-quality Pálava is always the biggest surprise with its incredible aroma on the nose and complexity in the mouth. To taste a grape unique to the Czech Republic, give Sonberk’s Pálava a try.
Where to taste these wines? In one of our favorite wine bars in Prague or, better yet, in person with the winemakers in Moravia during one of our weekend tours! Click here to book your spot now. We promise you won’t regret it.