Hundred best Czech and Moravian wines for 2015

In brief the composition of this year’sWine Salon exhibition is as follows: Champion – Pinot Blanc from Zámecké vinařství Bzenec, Best red wine – Laurot from VINSELEKT MICHLOVSKÝ, then 74 whites, 23 reds, 9 Rieslings, 8 from the Chardonnay grape variety, 7 Welschrieslings, Sauvignon Blancs, Grüner Veltlíners and blends, 48 late-harvest wines, 67 wines from the 2013 vintage, while the most venerable wine comes from the year 2005 and an altogether unbelievable 18 representatives from the winery VINSELEKT MICHLOVSKÝ.

The champion, thus the best wine from the Czech Republic for the year 2015, and simultaneously the winner in the dry and semi-dry white wines, was Pinot Blanc Ego75, special selection of grapes 2013 from Zámecké vinařství Bzenec. The grapes came from the Slovácko wine sub-region, from the village of Vracov and the individual vineyard called Klínky. The champion of the Wine Salon – the National Wine Competition 2015 succeeded in competition with a total of 1646 Moravian and Czech wines that were entered into the contest. We are dealing here with a wine of a bright straw hue, with traces of meadow flowers and spring fruit on the nose. On the palate it comes across as light though still full and round.

Among the red dry and semi-dry wines the highest ranking went to Laurot 2012 special selection of grapes from the VINSELEKT MICHLOVSKÝ winery.

In the whíte semi-sweet wines the jury decided on Pinot Gris 2013 special selection of grapes from the winery LAHOFER.

In the rosé-wine category is one single wine, namely Cabernet Sauvignon rosé 2013 late harvest from the winery ZNOVÍN ZNOJMO.

The best in the category of sweet wines was Pálava 2013 ice wine from Bronislav Vajbar.

In the category for quality sparkling wines the winner was Chateau Bzenec brut 2011 quality sparkling wine s.o. from the company Chateau Bzenec.

The prize for the best overall collection of wines was taken by the company VINSELEKT MICHLOVSKÝ.

“The Wine Salon presents the peak of our winemaking skills and for the majority of the winemakers as well as for all oenophiles the announcement of the winners represents the most important vinous event of the year. This is confirmed by the year-on-year increase in the number of visitors to the permanent tasting exhibition of the Wine Salon, which is at the same time also the current holder of the TOP Wine Objective prize,“ commented the director of the National Wine Centre, Pavel Krška.

On the wines in the Wine Salon

For this year‘s collection a total of 74 white wines were chosen, of which 59 were dry or semi-dry, 10 semi-sweet and 5 in the sweet wines category. Out of a total of 23 red wines 2 were sweet. The collection is completed by 1 rosé and 2 sparkling wines. 28 wines come from the Mikulov wine sub-region, 26 from Velké Pavlovice, 24 from Slovácko, 18 from the Znojmo wine sub-region, all these being in the Moravian wine region, while the Czech wine region is represented by 3 wines.

The most successful grape varieties this year were Riesling with a total of 9 representatives and Chardonnay with 8 representatives, these were followed by Welschriesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Grüner Veltliner and blends with 7 representatives apiece and the Pinots Blanc and Gris with 6 representatives. Gewurztraminer and Pálava grape varieties account for 5 wines, Frankovka (Blaufränkisch a.k.a. Lembergrger) and Pinot Noir 4 each.  

In terms of qualitative classification most wines included in this year’s Wine Salon of the Czech Republic are labelled late harvest (48), followed by 19 special selection of grapes and 9 kabinet wines.

The vintages having the greatest representation are 2013 with 67 wines, 2011 with 14 and 2012 with 13 wines. The oldest wine comes from the 2005 vintage and also featured this year is a “non-vintage“ sparkling wine.

In this year’s selection the most successful firms were: VINSELEKT MICHLOVSKÝ with 18 awarded wines, Vinné Sklepy Valtice, PATRIA KOBYLÍ and Košut Family Winery, all with 6 wines and ZNOVÍN ZNOJMO with 4 wines.

On the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic competition

During the competition’s qualifying rounds, evaluation takes place in the wine sub-regions of Velké Pavlovice, Mikulov, Slovácko and Znojmo of Moravia, as well as in the Bohemian wine region, and out of a total of 1646 samples the 722 best were selected, which all progressed to the first nationwide round of the competition. From this the best awarded 200 wines went on to compete in the 2nd round, whence emerged the100 best wines all awarded the title of Wine Salon of the Czech Republic;the absolute Champion, category winner and the title for the best overall collection in the Wine Salon – National Wine Competition 2015.

The new year of the permanent wine-tasting exhibition of the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic will open on Saturday 28th February 2015 as is traditional in the chateau of Valtice. This year the National Wine Centre is hoping once again to witness a further increase in attendance thanks to its having been awarded the TOP WINE OBJECTIVE prize. This victory, through a vote by the general public, will undoubtedly encourage thousands more fans of Moravian and Czech wines to come to Valtice.

Selection of judges and evaluation system

Every year our top tasters sit on the competition judging committees, where they are equipped with a modern computerised system over several rounds of evaluations, together with a guarantee from the Association of Winemakers of the Czech Republic that they represent absolute objectivity in their selection of the very best wines from Moravia and Bohemia.

An important and fundamental attribute of this competition is the requirement that the batch numbers of bottlings of the samples of wines registered for the competition had been verified and collected from the producer directly by the competition organisers who reserve the right to select any 6 bottles of the relevant batch at random.

The Wine Salon – National Wine Competition is also one of the very few competitions which randomly carry out chemical analyses in order to verify the declared and actual parameters of any one wine. At the same time the Wine Salon – National Wine Competition is without doubt the competition having the strictest conditions in the Czech Republic.

Patronage

As last year, the Wine Salon – National Wine Competition 2015 proceeds under the auspices of the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman.

For more information visit web site: www.vinarskecentrum.cz

For further information:

Ing. Pavel Krška, National Wine Centre

E-mail: pavel.krska@vinarskecentrum.cz

Tel: +420 519 352 072, +420 721 414 575

Mgr. Jana Škrletová, Omnimedia, s. r. o.

E-mail: j.skrletova@omnimedia.cz

Tel: +420 602 355 06