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Not only here for the beer: Moravia, the Czech Republic's wine region

The Czech wine season bursts into life this week, giving our writer the perfect excuse to head to the region of Moravia to sample this year's harvest

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Mark Pickering

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 November 2011 09.17 EST

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A vineyard in Moravia, Czech Republic. Photograph: Alamy

When parts of Europe quieten in a moment of remembrance at 11am this Friday, in the Czech Republic corks will pop, glasses clink and the country will resound to one collective gulp. For 11 November does not just mark Armistice Day. Here it is also St Martin's Day, and that means something else: the start of the Czech wine season.

For a country so synonymous with beer, the term "Czech wine season" may strike the casual visitor as a bit odd. I didn't see a glass of wine for the first six months I lived in Prague, so I imagined they just didn't care for the stuff, or it was made in some secret cave my ropey Czech hadn't yet bought me the password for. But it wasn't a cave I was looking for. It was Moravia. Less than 150 miles south-east of the capital, sprawling with quaint villages and hundreds of lush, green vineyards, this is undoubtedly wine country.

St Martin's Day is when the first fermented wine of the year is tasted (Czech "beaujolais"), and it provides the perfect excuse to escape into the Moravian countryside to sample it with the locals. Of the four major Moravian wine-producing towns – Mikulov, Slovácko, Velké Pavlovice and Znojmo – I headed to the latter, a gorgeous place just north of the Austrian border. There are plenty of accommodation options listed in English on the town's website (znojmocity.cz), and I would recommend a stay in the sleepy, rural hamlet of Nový Saldorf, just 10 minutes' drive from the centre. The family-run wine cellar, U Smrcka (+420 739 144 688, usmrcku.cz, doubles from £28), which has cosy, modern rooms attached, is particularly charming.

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Monday's House Insignia of the Day Revealed - The Golden Grape (Zlatý hrozen)

The Golden Grape (Zlatý hrozen)

One of the most beautiful of Prague's grape-bunches was raised on the home of a merchant named Ondřej Táborský in the first half of the 18th century.  In the Czech lands, the grape is one of the most prominent iconographic symbols, hardly surprising when we recall that St. Wenceslas, the patron saint of the Czech nation, is frequently depicted with his robes turned up, trampling out the vintage in the wine tub.  And indeed, Czech winemakers have always regarded St. Wenceslas as their special patron.  

Additionally, the martyred Prince Václav is linked to the earliest reference to the existence of a vineyard at the foot of Prague Castle, where he is said to have raised and harvested the grapes with his own hands.  

Nonetheless, the greatest expansion of wine growing in Prague, and the Czech lands in general, took place only with direct support for the diffusion of the vine from King Charles IV.  Through his edicts, the Prague vineyards, which then began directly outside the city gates, expanded far beyond the circle of the ramparts.  And yet today, there remain in the territory of the city of Prague a mere two vineyards:   Grébovka in the district of Vinohrady (literally the former "Royal Vineyards") and St. Clara Vineyard in Trója.

St. Clara Vineyard in Trója

Villa Gröbe (Grébovka) located in park Havlíčkovy sady, Vinohrady

Today the building is home to Restaurant Zlatý Hrozen, where you can enjoy limited quantities of wines imported to the Czech Republic from France, Italy and Chile by Víno Zlatý Hrozen

Location:  Železná 7, Praha 1, Staré město (Old Town)

A wolf in sheep's clothing

The most dangerous beverage in Prague (and no it's not absinthe, although that's a close second) is most definitely Burčák.  

I don't like autumn, but it does bring with it Burčák season - and I love me some Burčák!  So hurry - you have until about November 30th to indulge in this ridiculously good young wine.

For those of you unfamiliar with this oh-so-good sweet nectar, Burčák is the fermented young Moravian wine that is available several weeks into the start of the grape harvest.  It's very sweet and damn good, but beware, for Burčák is known as a wolf in sheep's clothing (and, um, I can attest to that).

Besides its dangerously good phenomenal taste, there is a curse of Burčák.  You see, while it only contains about 5% alcohol, it continues to ferment while inside your body.  That sounds much worse than it is, and if you're like me you're probably visualizing some yeasty beast growing inside you.  Gross.  But no, nothing like that.  It simply means that the alcohol level of the insanely delicious sweet beverage you've been consuming for the past four hours (perhaps less, perhaps more) has grown to that of a normal, matured wine (approximately 13%) while in your body.  This most certainly explains why more than half of the folks I met at the Burčák festival were happy drunk (self-included).

Enjoying Burčák in Náměstí Míru, Prague

Although you can find Burčák this time of year at many establishments (especially wine bars) throughout Prague, I suggest going to the source.  Head to the wine region of Moravia and enjoy harvest celebrations in the town of Znojmo, as well as other large wine areas such as Mikulov and Valtice.  "Czechs but especially Moravians have a very deep, traditional relationship with Burčák, because it is a traditional Moravian beverage.  Though Austrians and Germans also produce and consume young wine, only Czechs have Burčák, the name now protected under new legislation within the new EU.  Following EU accession the only true Burčák can come strictly from Moravian or Czech grapes."   

Indulge - before it's all gone!

The best hidden wine bar...EVER

Basement, cellar, crypt, vault, dungeon...whatever you want to call it, I'm there!  You see, these subterrane places intrigue me even more than driving through a ghetto.  Now combine this with vino, a labyrinth of stone stairs, in a spot generally unbeknownst to tourists, and I'm in a state of ecstasy.

Honestly, I can't believe I'm even going to share this place, but I trust that you'll wish to keep it a secret.  It's not that it's unknown, it's just that it's in the heart of the city and yet mainly frequented by locals and those who are so happy to have stumbled upon it that they dare not tell for fear of it being overrun by stag parties and, well, hipsters and douchebags.

You may think you're in the wrong place when you walk in the front door and are ogled (if you're an attractive female) by the chain-smoking beer-guzzling Czech men siding up to the bar, but you're not, just keep on walking...