Czechs' answer to bubbly - Bohemia Sekt

When it comes to New Year’s Eve, things have changed in the last 20 years. Now Czechs don’t just sit in front of their TVs on the last night of the year, noshing on chlebíčky and jednohubky, the famous open-faced sandwiches and canapés. They go out more, partying with friends and dining out; many theatres give special performances and neighbours just get together and celebrate the coming year. But one thing has not changed at all – their favourite drink to match the occasion is an original Czech sparkling wine – Bohemia Sekt.

Around three million bottles of Bohemia Sekt pop open on New Year’s Eve around the Czech Republic. First produced in 1969, it has been a Czech favourite ever since. The popular sparkling wine, or sekt in Czech, is produced exclusively at the Bohemia Sekt plant in Starý Plzenec outside Plzeň in western Bohemia. Tomáš Brůha is a sommelier at Bohemia Sekt, and the winner of Czech 2008 sommelier championship.

“The most popular product is Bohemia Sekt demi sec; it’s the most popular sparkling wine in the Czech Republic. We sell around five million bottles. But when we look abroad, we’ll see that Bohemia Sekt Prestige sells best; that’s sparkling wine made through fermentation in bottles. So the difference is whether you look at the Czech Republic or abroad.”

Sparkling wine sells best during the Christmas season, and the plant in Starý Plzenec prepares for the season well in advance. When I visited the plant in early December, they were already making wine for the coming spring.

Western Bohemia is not a traditional Czech wine-making region; in fact, all the grapes used to produce their sparkling wine are brought here from South Moravia where vine-growing dates back several centuries. Vítězslav Šuhájek, the company’s quality manager, says that the plant was originally a brewery, and only started making wine during the war.

“A company called Bohemian-Moravian Sparkling Wine Cellars appeared in 1942; and they started making sparkling wine here in Starý Plzenec. The first batch was produced in June 1945; it was red sparkling wine with the English name Black Widow. At that time, the US army was all around the area, and American soldiers helped very much to dispose of the first sparkling wines produced here.”

After the communist takeover of 1948, a French expert arrived in Starý Plzenec to shares his skills with the Czechs.

“At that time, Louis Girardot came here, a native of Epernay, a town in the Champagne region in France. He had made sparkling wines all his life, and he helped local wine makers with its production and development. He brought experience and he brought some practical skills that were adopted here.”

Most of the sparkling wine is produced by what is known as the Charmat process; wine is let to ferment in huge tanks, rather than bottles, and then bottled on the production line.

Only some 350,000 bottles of sparkling wine are produced in the traditional way, with the wine fermenting in bottles. Sommelier Tomáš Brůha says only real experts can tell the difference.

“It’s not an easy question because if the basic wine – or basic cuvee – is the same and we put one part of it in the tank and the other in bottles, the difference for the consumer – though not for an expert – is not that big. But it’s true that for classic fermentation in bottles we use better basic wines. That’s the biggest difference.”

Bohemia Sekt, owned by the German Dr Oetker concern, dominates the Czech market. While Czechs have increasingly learnt to appreciate foreign still wines, Bohemia Sekt sells more than two thirds of sparkling wine in the Czech Republic. Abroad, people prefer Bohemia Sekt wines that are prepared in the traditional way, such as Chateau Radyně, Bohemia Sekt Prestige and the company’s flagship wine, Louis Girardot, named after the Frenchman who helped the company in its beginnings. Martin Fousek is the marketing manager of Bohemia Sekt.

“Our export is not so high, it’s about three or four percent of our annual production, but it’s on the rise, which is good. The major market for us is Slovakia, Poland, and Belgium and other countries. One of our successful export products is Bohemia Sekt Prestige; it’s a bottle-fermented sparkling wine produced here in Starý Plzenec. It’s very successful in Belgium. We are also very successful in Slovakia with our still wine portfolio under the name Víno Mikulov Butterfly.”

The best Czech sommelier of 2008 Tomáš Brůha has some advice for those who can’t imagine seeing the New Year in without a glass of champagne in their hand. The key is to have your wine properly cooled.

“The most important thing when drinking sparkling wine is the temperature of the bottle or the sparkling wine. The refrigerator should be set at four degrees Celsius because as you drink it, the temperature goes up by some two or three degrees, and sparkling wine tastes best at six or seven degrees.”

And a final piece of advice from Tomáš Brůha: opening a bottle of champagne should not end in an accident!

“The correct way of opening the bottle is silent; the cork should not make any noise. Of course, you should not shake the bottle because of the carbon dioxide. I always tell people that it’s better to buy sparkling wine two or three days before drinking it.”