EP Business in Hospitality Issue 53 - April 2015

Czech wine | International
“
Here, you can choose from a
kaleidoscope of cultural events…
be buoyed along by the peaceful
rhythm of the life and find your
own inspiration in local folklore
”
iStockphoto.com, Thinkstockphotos.com
Moravian wine production accounts for
only 40% of domestic wine consumption.
The best wines are mainly distributed to
hotels and restaurants. In the summer, one
can visit more than 100 winemakers during
the Open Wine Cellar season followed by
September’s wine festivals and taste young
fermented wine juice called Burcak.
Brno is the main city of Moravia and the
second largest city in the Czech Republic.
The most visited sights of the city include
the Spilberk castle and the Cathedral of
St Peter and Paul on Petrov hill, medieval
buildings that overlook the town and are
often depicted as its traditional symbols.
Winston Churchill was a regular visitor –
including on his honeymoon – to Castle
Veveri, which overlooks the reservoir.
Brno built up a reputation in the 1920s
for its modern architecture in the Bauhaus
styles. The best example of this is Villa
Tugendhat, a family villa designed by Mies
van der Rohe in 1930 with futuristic layout,
Above
The historic
Chateau
Lednice
Left
The diversity
of soil types
ensures a
range of
wine varieties
furniture and technology. Near Brno is the
historic battlefield of Austerlitz, the site
of Napoleon’s most famous victory in the
Battle of the Three Emperors. It is now
an attractive location with its chateaux,
sculptures, Peace Memorial and Prace Hill
Museum. Each year, a spectacular battle
re-enactment gives a dramatic reminder
of this history-changing event. Chateau
Austerlitz represents an excellent example
of Baroque architecture with the Kaunitz
family art gallery. It all overlooks rambling
gardens connected to an 18-hole golf course.
Head south from Brno and the wine
region starts to open up with its historic
towns and chateaux. The neo-Gothic
Chateau Lednice has a design comparable
to the Houses of Parliament and a vast
greenhouse of tropical plants. The gardens
are a mixture of French style and extensive
English-landscaped parkland.
Just few minutes along the road and you
arrive at Chateau Valtice, once the main seat
of the Liechtenstein family. Together with
many monuments, churches and small
romantic structures, the chateau is part
of the Lednice-Valtice Complex owned
by the family for more than 600 years.
Olomouc is Moravia’s second city and
has played an important role in Czech
history. It was here in 1306 that King
Wenceslas III was murdered and, much
later, where Habsburg Emperor Franz
Joseph I was crowned in 1848.
The centre is dominated by one of the
baroque wonders of central Europe, the
18th century Holy Trinity Column that
rises 35m in height. A tour of the nearby
town hall includes its Gothic interior and
a climb up the town hall tower for dramatic
views of the Holy Trinity Column.
This article was written with the
assistance of Daria Harrison, one of the
region’s enthusiasts and a connoisseur of its
wine, and it is appropriate to end it with her
views on Moravia: “Living here means being
surrounded by interesting history, varied
architecture including chateaux, cycle
routes and golf courses with beautiful
nature and sunny vineyards. Here, you can
choose from a kaleidoscope of cultural
events throughout the year, be buoyed along
by the peaceful rhythm of the life and find
your own inspiration in local folklore. The
people, places and wine are so inspiring.”
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