Today we had a lovely ride through South Moravia which is part of the Czech Republic. We stayed tonight in the village of Hlohovec, our outside dinner along a lake was beautiful. After dinner our tour group went to tour a local winery. We met Joannes at the entrance to a small building, built into the hill side. This was the most unique winery we had every been to. Joannes and his family have been making wine here since the 15th century. He considers it to be his hobby, and works the vinyards part time in his retirement. The cellar itself had different casks, one for each type of wine which were ready for drinking, so six casks on each side, and besides the casks there was barely enough room for our group of 14 and Joannes.
Upon entering the cellar we were each given a small glass, about the size of a double shotglass (we didn't realize at this time that we would be trying 12 wines). We started with the whites, and made it through about 4 types before Joannes fessed up to having a dump bucket. He poured us each our wine using a device called a 'wine thief'. The 'wine thief' was about a three foot long glass cylinder, with what looks like a big bubble about 2/3 up. He stuck the long end of the thief in the casks, and just sucked out enough wine up the cylinder for our entire group, and wouldn't move onto the next wine until the entire thief had been consumed.
Fun was had by all, the night ended up in a sing along to the 'gambler', even the guides sang along to the song in Czech. One person didn't know the words, so we semi-jokingly accused him of not really being an American. Sean and I bought a bottle of red wine, which was delivered to us in a used, but clean plastic soda bottle.
Moravian wine is AWESOME.
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