Long read: Checking in with Czechia

By David Furer

Published: 21 December, 2022

Fresh from Moravia, David Furer finds a new wave of modernity delivering much promise in an old region.

Though the making and drinking of a wide range of spirits and its legendary pilseners is a mainstay of the Czech Republic, grapes and vinó have been produced here dating to the 9th century. Today its 1995 wine law is applied to southern Moravia’s 37,000+ acres grown by over 14,000 growers – an area dominated by small, family growers accounting for 95% of all Czech wine. Its four sub-districts – Mikulov, Znojemsko, Velké Pavlovice, Slovácko – skirt the Danube River south of the country’s second city of Brno.

Like its more renowned central European neighbours of Austria and Hungary, ongoing climate change impacts have shifted its cool, continental climate to allow for a greater ripening of grapes such as the top-planted white of Veltlínské Zelené and red of Frankovka, best known as Austria’s Grüner Veltliner and Blaufränkisch.

Three quarters of all grapes are white, with other common varieties being Muller-Thürgau, Riesling, Welschriesling, Pinot Gris and the indigenous Pálava (a circa 1953 Gewürztraminer and Müller Thurgau cross). The reds, meanwhile, include St. Laurent, Zweigelt and Pinot Noir.

While statistics are unavailable to support it, a disproportionately high volume of ‘natural’ wines appear to comprise much of what’s sold into the UK and US.

Pandemonium's Viliam Tomcanyi, a native Czech, imports 18 wineries from Czechia and Slovakia “though it's ever-changing because of the small production levels”. This scion of generations of Slovak winegrowers was quickly disenchanted with the available information on his native wines upon moving to London in 2017, and the network of people he'd met were patrons of the burgeoning natural wine bar scene.

“I didn’t set out to be a 'natural wine importer', but to give good value for the price which keeps us to working with families rather than larger companies,” he says.

Lower costing allows Tomcanyi’s biggest seller, Madl Winery, to find its dry Welschriesling at The Waterhouse Project, to the tune of through 20 cases monthly, with its Rivaner also available by the glass at the Shoreditch Wine House.

Former hospitality professionals Jiří & Zainab Majeriková wanted to work with organically and/or biodynamically-farmed wines, and their UK import company Basket Press Wines represents 13 Moravian wine producers, along with a wine producer from neighbouring Slovakia.

"The contacts we had in place helped us in getting meetings, then we let the wines and their stories carry the sales,” says Zainab.

“Potential customers might question the value of yet another wine-producing region. But it helps when they learn that Moravian wines have been made for centuries, and there’s a growing trend of younger people responding to sustainable wines. Michelin star establishments have some customers unable to afford a cru Burgundy or a name Napa Valley Cab and may be open to something relatively exotic to experiment with – and some sommeliers are keen to share stories from an unheralded part of Europe.”

Ottolenghi restaurant's group buyer Pierre Malouf has been working with Basket Press since its 2017 inception, saying: "We find that for such a small place, Moravia’s styles are varied and super exciting.”

Long a proponent of the broad natural wine category, he sees these as “an authentic reflection of the process, the winemaker's talent as well as the agricultural heritage of this region".

Malouf emphasizes that Ottolenghi’s kitchen's orientation towards complex tastes and aromas is best served by "wines that are able to stand up to it – richer whites, juicier roses and lighter wines all seem perfect for us, and these are styles currently made by natural Czech winemakers". And this extends to his preference of carrying native grapes such as St. Laurent and Welschriesling.

Accustomed to what he called “Indian summers”, biodynamic grower Marek Dubas of Basket Press’s Krásná Hora Winery described the rainy late September 2022 harvest as similar to 2010 and 2014 with “the grapes still perfect and hanging on the vine.” He works with four Dijon clones of Pinot Noir on three hectares, buying more from neighbours for his many sparkling bottlings, and combats too much rain by planting a wealth of cover crops in the hope that botrytis and excessive nitrogen don’t inhibit production in the low-trained, low-yielding vines. His still Riesling, sparkling pink, and plethora of still Pinot Noirs rank amongst the best wines I tasted during my visit to the region.

Located steps from Valtice’s historic Baroque chateau, the National Wine Centre oversees the interests of Moravia’s wines under the guidance of its first marketing director, the recently appointed Dagmar Fialová. Amongst her responsibilities is to determine a national policy for wine, “because the last 20 years have seen a significant rise in quality of south Moravian wines, but the clear defining our growing areas and styles haven’t been addressed.”

Fialová credited the small country’s late uptick in volume and quality to the stasis inherent in its pre-1992 cultural mindset and infrastructure functionality. “Most vineyards were previously planted to high-yielding varieties and methods, and it’s taken 30 years for our vintners to learn, then apply, new and better means of winegrowing. Since 2000 we’ve a new generation of wineries that began with fewer and better considered varieties, so we’ve recently begun to experience a systemic shift.”

Standing on the terrace of Mikulov’s Sonberk Winery that shift is apparent. Its modernity, as the country’s first to have been built amongst vines, gives a sweeping view of the Pálava Protected Landscape Area’s limestone cliffs and the estate’s 45 ha of grapes surrounding it. Having received critical acclaim for its 2015 vintage, Ellis Wines began importing its Pálava and Riesling in 2018, with on-trade sales dominant and a small amount finding its way to shops and private customers. Later in Mikulov I was treated to a range of fine still and sparkling wines at Fučik Winery, its 25-room hotel the largest owned by a Czech vintner, and its restaurant serving its and neighbors’ wines with a sommelier on-hand to detail informed choices.

Elsewhere, sparkling wine specialist Martin Prokeš of Proqin (pictured, right, with the author) – one of the industry’s most renowned educators, vintners and raconteurs, is a pivotal figure in Moravia’s wine modernity. He greeted me in his original cellar beneath a 17th century church in the center of Němčice with a fine-bubbled 2016 Riesling, explaining that he retains the services of a consultant from Champagne for his purposes and for those who contract with him for his sparkling consulting services. Prokeš also grows the traditional Champagne Pinots and Chardonnay.

In 2008 Prokeš, who also then set up Czechia’s first national sommelier competition, sold his first 800 bottles, “and thought I was a king!”

Having been converting his vineyards to organic, he adds: “I think our Riesling and Welschriesling are best suited to our terroir, our USP being simultaneously an old and new winemaking country with a kinship to Austria.”

Having just celebrated her paper anniversary as a company, importer Betty Novotna’s Wines of Bohemia was so named because “most people recognize Bohemia over Moravia as connected with the Czech Republic.” Initially selling primarily direct-to-consumer, she’s now set her sights upon upping on-trade listings in 2023 with the four Moravian wineries she represents in the UK.

“The exclusivity of unique grapes like Palavá are unlike anything else available,” adds Novotna.

In a country weighed with tradition, Moravia’s twin modern winery architectural marvels are Lahofer and Thaya, sitting just five miles apart, with the latter also having a restaurant with justifiable Michelin star ambitions.

At Thaya’s neighbouring biodynamic Špalek winery I encountered Professor Henry Hanson of Czech Technical University, an American who has taught in Prague since 1999. Hanson regularly takes his international coterie of students to visit Marek Špalek, ostensibly to learn how wineries are typically constructed alongside enjoying the wines of his friend's family.

“Lahofer's impressive, transparent architecture connects to the landscape of the vineyards surrounding it with elegance and resolved simplicity," says this wine-loving American. "No longer ensconced in historical precedent, and committed to a sophisticated wine experience, both are paradigm shifts for the perception of Czech wines.”

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