Velké Pavlovice - Blue mountains

The Moravian wine trail, leading along a zigzagging road over the hills at the fringe of the nature reserve of Ždánický Les and along a new cycling trail between vineyards from the direction of the town of Hustopeče will take you into the centre of the wine sub-region. The warmest village in the Czech Republic bore the name of Pavlovice until 1901, but the epithet ‘Velké’ (Big) can be already found in a document from 1575. Velké Pavlovice and its environs form a locality unique to the Czech Republic, due to the predominance of purple cultivars that prosper in the local fields with their southern orientation. Warm Alpine foehn winds and almost 1900 hours of sunshine, together with a high magnesium content in the soil, support ripening of the grapes, which are then used to produce the best red wines in Central Europe. The poet and connoisseur of wine, Jan Skácel, labelled the territory a region where “the Lord has walked”.  Lemberger, especially, flourishes here (its local names being Neskorák or Modrý Hyblink). Another prospering cultivar is Saint Laurent. The variety of Blauer Portigieser is enjoying a revival - due to its high yields, this cultivar unjustly took on the reputation of a vine used for cheap wines. As for white wines, the local Gewűrztraminer, Grüner Veltliner and Neuburger have become known and valued. The traditional local cultivars like Sylvaner, Gutadel, Maliňák and others have practically disappeared. The names of the local vine fields are:  Nadzahrady, Poštory, Koudelky, Novosády, Ostrovce, Kamence, Trkmanska, Hantály, Radlice, Puštáře. Some names of vine fields refer back to their history: e.g., Sudné (Court Field) refers to a dispute over land plots with the neigbouring village of Horní Bojanovice. Renowned wines from these fields have reached not only the tables of Czech rulers (in 1520 the King Louis the Jagiellonian commended them), but also those of Russian potentates (in July 1957 Nikita Khrushchev tasted the local wine while passing through the village). Moravian topography dated 1846 had it that wines of Velké Pavlovice equalled Hungarian wines in their fiery colour, and therefore dishonest tradesmen often tried to pass off the local wines for Hungarian. The general crisis of viticulture at the end of the 19th century affected Velké Pavlovice, too. The Phylloxera louse, new diseases and cheap brandy brought about the liquidation of vineyards and abandoning of cellars.  Putting an end to the decay and bringing about a renaissance in viticulture is much to the credit of the head teacher, Alois Horňanský, who founded a regional vine nursery in the town and published the specialized magazine Vinařský Obzor (‘Vintner’s horizon’). The motto of this enlightened man was: “Give the youth the grafting knife and the vineyard scissors, wine tasting should be handled by adults.” In 1925, a meteorological station became part of the vine nursery.        

Who gave the name to the cultivar of André

In Velké Pavlovice, several new cultivars of vine have been bred. At the beginning of the 1950s, the specialist Josef Veverka started his experiments crossing the varieties of Gewürztraminer and Müller-Thurgau. He finished his work, a new variety called Pálava, at the breeding station in Perná, where he was moved in 1959 for political reasons. The mild, aromatic variety of Aurelius came into existence in the 1980s as a cross between Neuburger and White Riesling. The best known “child” of plant-breeders is the cultivar of André. The specialist Jaroslav Horák created it in 1960 by crossing Lemberger and Saint Laurent within the framework of the breeding programme aiming at creation of a resistant and high-yielding variety with purple grapes. He gave the variety the name of André to commemorate the French natural scientist Christian Carl André. Nevertheless, citizens of Velké Pavlovice do not believe the official version and even doubt the existence of the French plant-breeder, who is supposed to have lived and worked in Moravia at the beginning of the 19th century. Taking into consideration the soft spot the father of the new cultivar had for the gentle sex, they are sure that this wine, distinctive for its high extractive quality and colour, bears the name of the plant-breeder’s mistress. You can mull over which version to believe while writing along the new cycling trail through ‘the region of André’, which passes through Velké Pavlovice on the way from Hustopeče to Kobylí.   

A dime for freeing for the viticulture law

The time when wine cellars in Velké Pavlovice came into existence is confirmed by Vine Tax registers from 1594 which mention the existence of pressing houses. Wine was kept also under a communal granary dated 1780, a very precious baroque building, which was renovated in 1993. Since the 19th century, private cellars have been constructed in the quarter of small houses called Pod Starou Horou (Under the Old Mountain) in the streets V Chalupách, V Údolí, Na Táboře, Trávníky and Zelnice. A monument of folk architecture is the pressing house at n. 154. The underground rooms are allegedly located in the place of Haban’s cellar (Haban = Moravian Anabaptist) from 1545. The entrance is equipped with a “žudro” (see the dictionary at the end) with an arched opening and a flat cross in the plaster. There is a granary on the first floor of the pressing house. Its saddle roof is covered with burnt roofing tiles. Another registered monument is the pressing house at n. 115. This is a single-storey building of stone and brick masonry from the 1820s as is shown by an inscription on a board with a relief of a vine grape – “Philipp Benda gebaut Anno 1817”. To the west from the square, in the quarter of Zelnice, there are about 25 cellars situated to one side of the road. These are as a rule two-storey pressing houses - very often they have been reconstructed with not much regard for the original appearance and equipped with a tasteless plaster façade from the socialist era. All the cellars in the settlement get especially lively at the time of feasts, viticulture festivities and summer events by open cellars. The local feasts are mentioned in the magazine ‘Česká Včela’ dated 1843. On Friday, the traditional square mast is erected; the Tuesday party is distinctive for dancing solo in shorts - there is also a local peculiarity featuring the youth making a boisterous tour of the town on Wednesday after the feast. During the locking of the mountain in September, a five-metre pole with grapes is erected and sanctified by a priest. Since 1923, the festivity has also included a procession in folk costumes on horseback. The locking of the mountain is related to a legend saying that everybody who plucks a grape belonging to somebody else will have his own vineyard pecked by starlings to the last fruit.

Exhibition of wines (March)

Open cellars of Easter

Forum Moravium (June)

A competitive exhibition of wines of the sub-region of Velké Pavlovice – organised since 1930

Wine in orange – on the holiday of St Cyril and Methodius – a feast of wine  with open cellars

Small feast after the day of the Queenship of Mary (August)

Vintage of Velké Pavlovice with the locking of the mountain (1^st  Saturday in September)

Festivities of burčák (burčák = half-fertilized young wine; October)

Tasting of wines on the day of St Martin accompanied with the opening of cellars (November)

Promenade of red wines (November)

Blessing of young wines (first Sunday after the day of St Martin)

Sanctification of wine on the day of St Catharine

Display of stored wines from previous years (December)