First beer then wine is fine

Welcome to the ABC of Czech in which this season we look at Czech vocabulary to do with food and drink. In the past two episodes we talked about beer in the Czech language and today we'll concentrate on the other most popular alcoholic beverage: wine, víno. Just as the German proverb goes: "First beer then wine is fine."

Grapevine has been grown in the Czech lands since the time of Emperor Charles IV who in the mid-14th century encouraged farmers to plant vines - vinná réva on the sunny slopes around Prague and elsewhere in the country in exchange for tax relief. Some of the vineyards - vinice originally founded by Charles IV are yielding crops to this day, wine is grown also around the town of Melnik north of Prague but the traditional winegrowing region - vinařská oblast is South Moravia.

If you ever visit the region, you cannot miss the opportunity to visit a vinný sklípek or a wine cellar. There are dozens of them outside every winegrowing village and their proud owners will make you try all their wines while a typical Moravian band will play folk songs about their beloved vínečko - or little wine.

It can be white - bílé or red - červené or rosé which is called the same in Czech. Wine can be sparkling - šumivé, also called sekt or in popular speech bubliny - bubbles. The word for champagne, šampaňské, should be applied only to sparkling wine produced in the French district of Champagne. Wine spritzer - vinný střik, that is wine mixed with soda water, is very popular especially in the summer. On the other hand, in winter, many people like to drink svařené víno, mulled wine, that is usually hot red wine with spices and sugar.

Very popular are also half-fermented young wines, called burčák, which are drunk at the beginning of autumn at grape harvest festivities. The drink is sweet and fizzy and tastes deceptively innocuous.

And since I'm no wine connoisseur, I'll stop right here before I make some kind of blunder. Till next time, thanks for listening and na zdraví! Cheers!