Vinobraní!!!

Many nations are known for their wine culture: the French, the Italian, even Hungarians. The Czechs don't have this international reputation but for those who are lucky enough to be in this lovely little country in the early autumn there is an experience like no other.

Vinobraní is the traditional celebration of the grape harvest in the autumn here in the Czech Republic. If you go to the southern region of Moravia, you will find villagers dressed in traditional clothing, large dances and tiny towns decorated to the hilt....and of course WINE. And here in Prague there is also an annual vinobraní celebration, although there are stages with large screens and rock bands instead of peasant women.

Now, you must understand that the wine of vinobraní isn't what you are used to buying at the local shop. This is a specialty called burčák. Burčák (bor-chak) is "new wine". It's a little like hard grape juice. The key is to drink the grape juice that is being prepared to become wine just before it begins to ferment. The Czechs have many various legends and wives' tales involving the health benefits and how many liters will bring those desired benefits.

I went to the festival in Vinohrady with my lovely friends, the Princs. (Thanks for the photos, Angela!) We ate and we drank. Kolbasa and potato pancakes helped coat our tummies with a nice layer of fat to help in the digestion of burčák. We discussed love, life, religion and politics...all with the help of a little burčák. At the end of the evening, the vineyard hillside of the park was lit up with fireworks and the ooohs and awwws of happy people.

Only winter, spring and summer until another vinobraní celebration...I guess absence will make the heart grow fonder (and the stomach stronger).