When long-standing partner-in-wine Prague Ginge suggested "wine festival" and "Troja" (one of my favourite places in Prague - previous review here) as a pleasant way to while away the rest of yesterday afternoon, it was hardly like I needed much persuasion to join her, especially as the weather was uncharacteristically warm and sunny after all these recent chilly days of unrelenting grey...


Clearly we were not the only ones who thought so either, as the place was packed with fellow wine drinkers out en force enjoying the last of the day's sun.


The hill leading up to St. Klara's vineyard was lined with several little stalls, all offering wine or snack food in multiple varieties.

As for Prague Ginge and I, we kicked off with a tasting glass of some very un-Czech Portuguese Calvas white port at 35 CZK a pop.


Cheers!! :-))


This was seriously nice and sweet, but all too quickly gone...

Heading down the path to Trojský zámek, we therefore stopped in at the official St. Klara vineyard stand, where we both had a 0,2l glass of Müller Thurgau at another 35 CZK each.

This was my sneaky artistic shot of someone else's drinks.


Prague Ginge had never yet tasted burčák, so picked up a sample glass from one of the stands.


I have never been one for burčák (sorry to all the fans out there), and as it turns out neither was Prague Ginge.

Still, here's my attempt at a second artistic shot of said burčák glass by one of Trojský zámek's several fountains.


As per usual, Prague Ginge and I were drinking rather than eating, but we did clock a few tasty treats on offer, from koláče and klobása to goulash and gouda...







And of course, there were the pre-requisite Czech folksy bands (whose names I never know) on hand to add a bit of music and oom-pah-pah joviality to the day as well...



A beautiful sunset over Troja rounded off a highly enjoyable afternoon and evening, as we both parted ways in order to sensibly go and line our stomachs at our respective abodes in preparation for the next working day.


So it's thanks Prague Ginge for the tip-off and the company - needless to say, you can count on me for next year's attendance as well!!

Going on the recommendation of my Portuguese colleague, one weekend Mr K and I headed down to V & A Wine Merchants near Jiřího z Poděbrad (not to be confused with the, in my admittedly biased opinion, vastly superior V & R Imports in Karlin) on the - in the event false - premise that they apparently stocked the elusive variety of traditional Portuguese green wine there.

Mr K was feeling peckish, so ordered a couple of cheeses from the selection on offer, the goat’s cheese and the Grès des Vosges at 50kč for the two.

These came beautifully presented with capers and cherry tomato garish and accompanied by a basket of pumpkin bread. Mr K happily munched his way through every slice of cheese but a token one, clearly employing the normally feminine logic that it only counts as greedy should you actually eat them all.

For the sake of comparison, we also took a couple of bottles home – this time round a Lebanese white and a Georgian red. I forget the exact prices, but they were on the cheaper end of the shop’s range at between 150kč and 180kč each. The Cave Kouroum Blanc Perle 2009 was drunk the following night (needless to say, wine doesn’t hang about very long chez Knedlikova...), and the Marani Saperavi dry red not long after that – both of which went down very with both myself and Mr K. I’ll leave the flowery descriptions to the vineyard websites of Cave Kouroum and Tiflisi Marani – Jilly Goolden sadly I am not.

A lot was happening in the world this time last year.

Bankers (and their bonuses) were near universally reviled for effectively blackmailing billions in bailouts from the taxpayer, as the world teetered precariously on the brink of financial meltdown. The interminable Afghan War officially became the longest overseas conflict in which the United States had ever in its history been embroiled. A swine flu pandemic was on the brink of sweeping the world and killing us all (or so we were told). Even bloody Michael Jackson went and carked it...

And, amidst all the global mess and madness, the girls – Lady H, Southern Belle and I – set out on a weekend jolly of wine tasting in Moravia, figuring that we might as well at least enjoy ourselves in the run-up to impending apocalypse at any rate.

A few hours train travel out of Prague on a sunny Saturday morning, and we arrived in the UNESCO heritage site and viticultural town of Valtice, one of the main centres of the Moravian wine-growing regions, located just a stone’s throw from the Czech-Austrian border.

At the heart of the town stands a Baroque château, initially built as the seat of the ruling princes of Liechtenstein, back in the days when countries (or principalities at least) could just randomly up sticks and plonk themselves back down again on the other side of Europe.


These days the château serves the far more convivial purpose of National Wine Centre (Národní Vinařské Centrum) of the Czech Republic – our real reason for coming here in the first place! We were visiting too early in the year for the annual Valtice Wine Festival held every October, but the vast cellars of the Wine Centre are open pretty much all year round, housing one hundred of the top-ranked (or designated “Salon vín České republiky”) home-grown reds, whites and sparklings of the Czech Republic.



Various degustation programs are available here, ranging from 125 – 399kč for a pre-set, sommelier-led tasting tour round the centre cellars. Or, alternatively, you can just do what we did – namely ditch the sommelier altogether and just pay a 355kč flat fee to be let loose upon a hundred odd varieties of open wines, with just a glass and a basket of bread (a.k.a. “neutralization bites”) to help counteract at least some of the resultant damage.... Not sure who ever thought it was a good idea to give three wine-thirsty girlies pretty much free reign on unlimited fine wines, but needless to say we all lapsed into temporary “kid in a candy shop” madness in our frenzied attempts to collectively work our way up from labelled wines 1 to 100... ;-)))

Here’s us at around a civilised number 2 or 3...


Probably getting into the twenties or thirties here...


And from around the sixties we all effectively lost count altogether, though we were clearly not all that bothered about the fact at the time... ;-))


Luckily for us, one wing of the château is given over to Hotel Hubertus, an admittedly rather over-priced and distinctly shabby choice of accommodation, but one that at least has the virtue of proximity to the cellars in question. And after having tasted upwards of fifty wines each in the course of just two hours, this was quite an important, if not in our case vital, consideration.

Needless to say, I can’t recall in detail any of the many and varied wines consumed, though I do remember gravitating towards the sweet / medium-dry whites (my usual tipple of choice) and - despite the assurances of quality - still not being particularly overwhelmed by any of the supposedly award-winning reds. Not that I mean to bash Czech wines here by the way – I’ve had some really very good whites here over the years, but just have yet to find a red of equal standing...

Anyway, after an epic 18 odd hour wine-induced sleep / coma (broken only temporarily to seek out some restoratively carb-heavy dinner), the three of us re-emerged the following morning – miraculously hangover-free given the circumstances – to greet yet another day of beautiful Moravian sun. In order to (at least in part) make up for our communal excesses of the previous afternoon, we decided to make a wholesome trip over to the neighbouring manor of Lednice, 7km from Valtice directly down a long lime-tree avenue.

The landscaped parks and gardens here were all in bloom, and it was truly relaxing to just stroll gently around the lake here, feeling a blissful million miles away from a rest of the planet that was seemingly going down the toilet fast...




Still, inevitably the clock caught up with us in the end, leaving us with just enough time back in Valtice to round off what had been an idyllic weekend with a final mid-afternoon glass of white (just the one this time!) on the sun-drenched Hubertus patio and stock up across at the château wine shop, before finally embarking on the long trek back to Prague again, arriving home early on Sunday evening – a good time having truly been had by all.

Well, a year on and the world still hasn’t ended yet – perhaps there’s still time to fit in another Valtice visit in the meantime then... ;-)))

Every time I go to V & R Imports, the upmarket wine salon (or “oenotheka”) at Sokolovská 61, I invariably end up having fun poked at me, getting piddlified more than is good for me the next day, spending more than I originally intended, and tottering into a taxi home at the end of the night, or - failing that - losing expensive items of property (such as camera with all my review photos of my latest evening there) on public transport instead.

So why then, given all the above, has V & R’s been the favourite haunt of myself, the girls, and even Mr K since its early days as a Vinohradská tržnice wine retailer, and why do I keep inexorably coming back for more?

1. The Wine

Well, without wanting to state the obvious, the wine is pretty damn good. Friends of mine will tell you that I happily quaff pretty much anything when it comes to wine, eschewing only the most violently vinagrette of varieties. However, after years of guzzling the stuff, even I can tell the good, the bad and the ugly from the superior or occasionally sublime, and can confidently say that all the many and varied wines I’ve ever tasted at V & R’s fall firmly into the latter two categories. I won’t start waxing lyrical on the subject here as I probably wouldn’t be very convincing – suffice to say that as an independent wine importer, distributor and retailer of fine wines (most of which have been personally sourced from vineyards across Europe and the New World), Vera and Robert (the respective "V" and "R" namesakes) certainly know their stuff when it comes to a good tipple. I know I for one would rather spend 35kč on a nice glass of zesty Chilean Chardonnay or fruity Cabernet Sauvignon in elegant surroundings here than fork out the same on your typically bog-standard Müller Thurgau / Frankovka plonk in some dingy hospoda elsewhere – oh and not forgetting the 10% discount for Decanter Club card holders and their regular degustation evenings (usually hosted by the original wine producer themselves) as well...




2. Vinturi

No, not the fictional vampire aristocracy in the Twilight series. Rather, the Vinturi is a nifty thingamajig (one widget for white, another for red) in use at V & R’s that magically aerates the wine, so that you get its full flavour without having to sit around and wait an hour for the whole process to happen naturally. I don't understand how they work, but everyone is definitely getting one for Christmas…


3. The Nibbles

And what would a fine wine be without a new nice nibbles to accompany it? V & R’s offer a full range of light canapés and salads, which includes the option of having the wine matched precisely to your menu. My particular favourites include the platter of pecorino romano and sheep cheese aged in marinated fig leaves accompanied by grissini with rosemary and Spanish black olives (pictured below), as well as their their signature “knoflik” or “button” dishes of Spanish herb toasts topped with a choice of Italian pesto and Gorgonzola, cream cheese and smoked salmon with fresh dill, or prosciutto crudo and Spanish black olive. They also have a food cabinet where you can buy quality olives, oils and foie gras etc.


4. The Sofas

Another major plus point at V & R’s is their beautiful set of sofas, cushions and upholstered chairs – far more comfortable to sit back and enjoy your wine upon than a cold, hard barstool at any rate. Rumour has it that should you ever fall off one of said sofas in a drunken haze, Robert will peel you up off the floor again, chivalrously pour you into a taxi home, and pretend forever after that the whole unfortunate narcoleptic incident never occurred. Dignity preserved! (Ahem...)


5. The Owners

Owners Robert and Vera know their regulars almost as well as some of their wines, and are therefore able to provide personalized, friendly service accordingly. For some reason, in my case this translates into gentle mockery (in the nicest possible sense) each and every time I visit - am not quite sure myself quite why this should be, but every guest (including, most notably, Mr K) I've ever brought here all seem to gleefully join in on the joke, so clearly I must just somehow invite well-meaning derision... ;-)) In all seriousness though, if you are in need of a particular recommendation, a wine for a special occasion, or simply a nice bottle for a relaxing evening in, Robert and Vera are able to advise – as well as offering a general try-before-you-buy policy on the wines in question.

Ok, perhaps I am not the most objective of reviewers in this case, given that I and the girls have been happily quaffing lovely wines here on a regular basis for a good year now – but hey, when did I ever make any claims to detached observation...?? Mission statement of this blog is simply to “share an irreverent look at a few favorites old and new with the rest of the Czech / expat foodie community”, and this is (in my self-confessedly subjective / oenologically uninformed opinion) one personal favourite I am more than happy to recommend to any fellow wine lovers out there... Just be sure to leave a spot on the sofa for me!! ;-))


NB: Photos 1,2 and 5 (i.e. all the good ones) are courtesy of friend and fellow V & R Imports fan Berniece Tahmindjis of Reflections Photography.

After days of seemingly endless gray, the sun has at long long last finally put in a welcome appearance, and I am reminded of halcyon Prague summer days gone by, a good number of which were spent up at the Svatá Klára vineyard (an historic part of the Botanical Gardens at Troja), enjoying a nice glass or two of chilled white wine from their copious vinný listek and taking in the scenic views over Prague.

These are my attempts at artistic shots from last August, when, as I recall, I was sharing a nice carafe of rýzlink with my fellow wine loving mum (on a visit over from the UK at the time).




With the weekend also set to be nice, I'd definitely recommend headed up to Troja for a pleasant afternoon of chilling in the gardens, taking a tipple at the vineyard, and enjoying a tasty paprika sausage from the little food stand to the far side of the park. But until then I have to keep this one short but sweet - the sun may be shining outside, but for the time being I for one am still in the office... ;-))

Mr K, having a fondness for both prosecco and al fresco drinking, likes to go to Střelecký Ostrov of a sunny afternoon to indulge in a glass or two and take in the scenic views over Prague from their pleasant rooftop terrace, and in all honesty it’s not like he really has to twist my arm much for me to accompany him there either. We’ve not eaten there as yet due to the relatively high prices (if I'm going to splurge on a meal, I’d rather it be at SaSaZu), but it’s definitely on list for next special occasion.

Prosecco is priced fairly reasonably at 90kč a glass, which in our view is worth every crown for the rare chance to just take a little time out of our day and relax in the sunshine over a drinkie and a nice game of travel Scrabble or two (yes, we really are that sad...).

Views from the terrace stretch out from here over Narodní Divadlo and the peddle-boats round Slovanský Ostrov.

As for the Střelecký Ostrov get-up itself, while the outdoor terrace is duly sleek, fashionable, light and airy...

...I've still never yet quite worked out the purpose of the rather incongruous four-poster bed.

Unfortunately, our last two visits there have been slightly marred by a particularly sullen waiter whose sulky mizzog could literally sour milk (I rather uncharitably suspect that this is the reason why we had no strawberry in our prosecco this time round). Part of me feels the pain of service staff (after all, I’ve had my fair share of menial student jobs in the past, and years later am still an avid follower of the Waiter Rant site). However, when it comes to a place as purportedly high-end as Střelecký Ostrov, you would expect the waiter to at least attempt to leave that heavy chip on the shoulder at the door…

Moving on from last week’s winter warming entry, when I woke up to hot sun shining through my window the other day, I spontaneously decided to make a trip over to the Viniční Altán at Havlíčkovy Sady in Vinohrady.

This time round I shared a 0.5l carafe Rýzlink rýnsky 2006 at 154kč with a visiting friend, a wine the vinný listek described as having a "bright yellow colour with a spark of rich flowery bouquet". Being a prolific drinker and at the same time notoriously poor critic, I can only concur... :-)) We didn’t have anything to eat this time, but I have had both the savoury strudel and French cheese plate in the past, both of which were nice nibbles to accompany the wine. As Brewsta says in his 2008 review of the place though, it’s really more a place to enjoy a nice glass of wine on a hot summer day and take in the view though than it is to eat.