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Moravian Wine Trails
Walk or bike through the breathtaking landscapes of Southern Moravia along the newly opened wine trails...
traveling to some of the 400 wine growing villages. You will meet the local wine growers and taste
their wine in their wine cellars that often date from Renaissance or Baroque times and feature unnique
décor. And on the way, you will stop at local vinoteka--wine shops supported by associations of
villages and wine growers.
There is also a growing partnership with the Austrian Weinviertel wine region between
Moravia and Vienna, where the Greenways trails link the Moravian region to historic
Austrian wine centers, such as Poysdorf, Mistelbach, Wolkersdorf and vineyards of the Danube River.
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Viticulture Along the Prague-Vienna Greenways |
Viticulture is an intrinsic part of life in Southern Moravia, and has left an imprint on the local
landscape and culture with rolling vineyards, quaint wine cellar streets, grape harvest
festivals, viticulture museums, village fairs and wine expositions.
In Moravia, there are 27,000 acres (11 000 hectares) of vineyards. The wine growing tradition
dates back to the 3rd Century, when the Roman 10th Legion from Vindobona, Legio Decima Gemina,
Pia Fidelis, had encampments beneath the hills in the Palava region near Mikulov on the
old Amber Trail. It is said that the white limestone formation reminded them of their
homeland and gave them the idea to try growing wine in this fertile region which is now
the main wine producing area in the Czech Republic. A vintner's knife for cutting the vines
was found by archeologists at the site of the camp.
The three leading varieties are for white production: Veltliner, Muller-Thurgau and Riesling Italienne.
These varieties are planted on about half the area of the Moravian vineyards. Twenty five percent
are reserved for the varieties of high quality white wines, such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc,
Traminer, Pinot Blanc and Riesling. The other twenty five percent are for the varieties of red
wine production: St. Laurent, Limberger, Oporto, Pinot Noir.
In Southern Moravia, there is a long tradition of owning a vineyard and a wine cellar. There are
16,000 small vintners in the Moravian wine region. In the spring, when the wines are clean and
ripe, the small vintners in every wine-growing community organize a wine exhibition with more
than a hundred wine samples. A commission of experts judges the quality of wines on a scale
in point values. The best wines are awarded a prize.
September, during the harvest time, is a fun time to visit. Every larger town of the wine-growing
region holds its own Wine Festival with parades, music, dances, food and of course wine tasting.
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Wine Links
Additional information about the Moravian wine region:
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