Wine Salon of the Czech Republic

Our final wine stop for the day was at Salon vín České Republiky, the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic, located in the cellar of a Baroque chateau in the town of Valtice.  The Czech Republic has an annual national wine competition in which wines made exclusively from grapes from the Moravian and Bohemian wine regions are entered.  The top 100 wines, selected by a tasting committee, earn the Gold Medal of the Wine Salon and are exhibited in the Salon for the year.

The public can purchase tickets to enter the Salon for 90 minutes or 150 minutes (guided tastings with a sommelier can also be purchased) to try as few or as many wines as they would like within the timeframe.  Bottles of these wines can be purchased as well.

We bought 90-minute tickets and quickly made our way into the Salon. The cavernous basement displays wines grouped by varietal, with all of the whites first and then the reds.  Information about each wine is on a nearby placard.  You grab a bottle yourself and pour.

There were so many options it was almost overwhelming to figure out how to proceed.  Where do we start?  We can’t try everything in 90 minutes.  How do we choose?  How do we pace ourselves?  How do we not become intoxicated?  From what our tour guide said, tourists don’t typically worry about that last question – she has brought several people here who stumbled their way out.  But I wanted to remember this experience clearly.

Determined to have some plan, we made our way by selecting a couple of varietal wines, usually from different sub-regions, to make a comparison.  For example, we tried Chardonnay from the wine sub-regions of Znojemská and Velkopavlovická.  We also tried the oldest wine of the top 100 – a 2008 Rulandské šedé  (Pinot gris) from Velkopavlovická.

This unique tasting experience was enhanced by the dimly lit, brick-lined cellar setting.  It was an excellent way to try a wide variety of Czech wines from different sub-regions.  Among our favorites were a Cabernet Sauvignon and an Alibernet (crossing of Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon) from the Mikulovská sub-region.  I easily could have spent more than 90 minutes trying all of these fabulous wines.