Ultimate private wine tasting experience from Prague to Moravia (3 days)

Wine, Art and History Make a Memorable Excursion

This was a phenomenal experience! Because of our schedule, we were only able to do two days but our guide, Andrea, put together a memorable itinerary. She picked us up at our hotel right on time and we headed off to the Moravian wine country. Our first stop, however, was an option she offered to view Alphonse Mucha's Slav Epic. I'd heard about this Mucha series last year so wanted to take the opportunity to see it in person. Oh my goodness, was it impressive. Some twenty massive canvases tell the story of the Slavic people and reflect Mucha's love of country and people. If you're at all interested in art history, do try to include this. On to the wine. Our first stop was a small family winery that was awarded Best Winery in 2025 in the Prague Wine Trophy competition. The wines did not disappoint. They produce mostly dry wines that express a crisp minerality characteristic of the granite terroir. We tried a sparkling wine, a Gruner Veltliner and a Muller Thurgau from 45 year old vines and finished with a bold, earthy Blaufrankisch. We went a bit far afield to visit another winery that isn't on the regular itinerary but it belongs to the family of a friend and we had wanted to see it if possible. Andrea graciously accommodated our wish even though it threw our schedule off rather severely. We stayed overnight at the Hotel Volarik in Mikulov - a lovely hotel with spa that sits below a stately chateau. After a very fine included breakfast, we headed to Lednice Chateau which was owned by one family for almost six hundred years. It's a beautiful estate with elegant gardens and worth a visit. From there we continued to Chateau Valtice, home to the Czech National Wine Salon. This was a fascinating discovery. Each year, the National Wine Center and Czech Grape and Wine Producers Association hold a national wine competition. The 100 best wines are ultimately selected for inclusion in the Wine Salon where visitors can taste and purchase the wines. Obviously, no one can taste every one of the wines so we relied on Andrea, a certified wine expert, to take us through a tour of some of the vintages. We focused mostly on Gruner Veltliner and Welschreisling for white wines and Merlot, Pinot Noir and Blaufrankisch for reds. Nicely dry wines, they all had a very good balance of residual sugar and acidity. Our last stop was another family owned winery in the Pavlova region of Moravia. These were organic wines that were described as mineral, salty with higher acidity and low residual sugar. They cultivate Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay along with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. We tasted Reislings from three different vineyard sites to get a sense of the impact of soil, sun exposure on the grapes and tried a smooth, complex Cabernet Sauvignon/Melot blend. In addition to the wines, we enjoyed listening to our hostess talk about the efforts she and her husband undertook to preserve the vineyards under Communism. We heard similar stories from some of the other vintners about the challenges they faced during the Soviet occupation. They were allowed to grow grapes but not make wine so their grapes had to go to state run "wine collectives" where cheap, mass produced wines were made, seldom with regard to quality. It has really only been in the last 30 years, post-Velvet Revolution, that the Czech wine industry has reemerged. If you love wine and history -- you'll love this tour!

Response from the operator: Dear Susan, WOW — thank you so much for such an incredible and detailed review! I can only imagine how much time you spent putting all those memories (and wines! 😊) together, and I truly appreciate it. It was such a pleasure putting this Moravian adventure together for you and Jim, including all our little detours and special requests along the way. I’m so happy that you enjoyed not only the wines, but also the history, the people we met and the stories behind Czech winemaking. I had a wonderful time with you both, too, and your review brought back some great memories. 😊 Thank you again, Susan — and NA ZDRAVÍ to you and Jim! 🍷 Andrea

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This Tour is Highly Recommended

We highly recommend this tour! We're rather delayed in writing our review so we've had some time to reflect on our experience. We fondly reminisce about our time traveling to Moravia with Andrea every time we open a bottle of wine. This tour was the highlight of our extensive trip across Europe and such a lovey way to end our travel. Andrea tuned into us very quicky and adapted the tour in a manner that felt well curated to delight us. She has an extensive and established network to call upon which was obvious by the warmth we were received in all of the places we visited. Everyone we met was incredibly generous and welcoming and our heartfelt thanks goes to all of the oenologists who passionately shared their craft with us. We thought we knew a thing or two about wine but learned so much more about terroir, weather, grapes, geography, history etc. Andrea you are incredibly hospitable, we miss you. Robert & Alison McIntyre

Response from the operator: Dear Alison, dear Robert, It took me also some time to reply to your wonderful review you left me here in Tripadvisor. It is the most valuable moment I can get – such a positive outcome from my travellers. Not only, that you had to invest some time to write this review, but you covered it all! I really had a very special tour with you. I would even say “the one to remember”. You were such a wonderful people. Full of positive energy and inspiration to me. I often mention our Moravian experience within my friends, and describe you as those who travelled from Paris to Prague on bike!! 😉 I am pretty sure; you were the only ones. The ones I will remember for sure. Whenever you would be travelling back to Europe, please consider to stop over in Prague (or Czech Republic to make it easier for you 😉). I would be more than happy to meet you again. Not as regular clients, but as people, I'm grateful for their companionship. I would love to see you again. I miss you too! Sincerely, Andrea

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Sabering Bubbles in Moravia

Andrea was a fabulous guide as was the driver. She took us to great vineyards with friendly knowledgeable people. I would take the tour again in a heartbeat!

Response from the operator: Dear Arth, thanks a lot for your glowing review! You were fabulous guests and the same on my side - would repeat this tour again in a heartbeat! Cheers, Andrea

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A truly exquisite private wine tour

Is this isn't the ULTIMATE wine tour, I don't know what is. This private experience should be on every food & wine lover's MUST-DO list. It's a bit pricey but worth every penny and you will enjoy every moment. GO! Here is a detailed overview: We had a very interesting three days in the Czech wine region with our very own personal Wine Travel in Czech guide, Andrea Kotaskova. The oh-so lovely Andrea was dedicated to us for the entire three days. She served as our personal driver, wine expert, and tour guide from the minute she picked us up at our inn in Prague until we boarded the train in Breclav, CZ (where Andrea dropped us off, at our request). Andrea was a wonderful and knowledgeable wine expert and guide. Thank goodness we booked her to guide us every step of the way as the Czech language can be a little challenging for Americans (once you are out of the big cities, where English is not so prevalent. Andrea, also served as the perfect English <-> Czech translator, ensuring our three days in the wine region were perfect). From the moment Andrea picked us up at our inn in the Castle Quarter of Prague, she entertained us with delightful conversation about her business and her family as she drove us through the lovely Czech countryside for the three hours it took to get to Moravia. First stop (not counting a latte break at a super new and clean gas station / WC stop along the highway) was a leisurely walk in the absolutely charming and colorful little town of Mikulov. We enjoyed a light lunch in the tiny little KUK Bistro cafe (which had maybe 4 or 5 little tables). We ordered their soup of the day, a lentil, onion and mushroom soup which was absolutely delicious, HUGE portions, and so inexpensive by US standards. This nice big bowl of hot soup was perfect on what was otherwise a very cold and grey day. We followed lunch with a walk around the Chateau Mikulov gardens (we would have toured inside the chateau but they are closed on Mondays). The chateau is the biggest, most noticeable place in Mikulov...you can't miss it. We also toured the chapel and tomb dedicated to a local, historic, noble family, which all served to get us well acquainted with the local culture. We really loved the radiant architecture of this charming little town. Next, we checked in to our "wine cellar" style room (a basement apartment) at the Apartment Antico inn in Mikulov. Andrea had personally booked the room for us, specifically selected to give us the ultimate wine country experience. The room was quite unique, to say the least, and I must say, while I was initially somewhat skeptical, we rather enjoyed our two nights there in our nouveau rustic wine cellar room. Thankfully Andrea was able to communicate with the inn keeper as I don't think my four-word Czech vocabulary correlated much, if at all, with his four-word English vocabulary. Andrea was an excellent translator so we had all the help we needed to make our accommodations as comfortable as possible. Fortunately, the inn keeper was very kind and willing to carry our two fully-packed (and heavy) travel bags down the very narrow and steep stairway to our basement apartment. I think my six-foot-plus tall husband was a bit taken aback to find our room had a rather low, rounded (wine barrel shaped) ceiling and an even shorter door that led into the "powder room"....my dear husband managed to hit his head on that door every time he went in! I must say, he was a very good sport about the lack of a shower (which most Americans are used to and expect). With all our experience traveling around Europe, we have come to expect we may have to suffice with just a bathtub now and then, as we did here. Interestingly, the bathtub (a really nice, modern, big and deep one) was one of the main features of the main sleeping bedroom. I loved it...my husband not so much, but he managed. A younger couple might find it to be just wonderful and very romantic. After checking in to the inn Antico, Andrea took us to two different wineries for our first afternoon of wine tasting. We must have sampled 6 to 8 different wines everywhere we went. Good thing we caught on very quickly that we would need to pace ourselves and simply "taste" (versus "drink" the generous pours of each of) the local wines! One thing we quickly became aware of: we actually knew nothing about Czech wine (90% of which are whites) going in to this excursion, perhaps because they export very little to the US....virtually all their production is consumed in Czech (or in some very limited quantities to other EU countries). By US standards, the prices for Czech wines are very reasonable....even for their highest quality premium editions. It was all quite a delightful and educational couple of days of tasting. For the most part we really loved the Palova wines and some of the Welsh Rieslings (which weren't really Welsh at all). Do try them ALL if you ever go. On our first night in town, Andrea had made dinner reservations, just for the two of us, in her favorite Mikulov restaurant, Sojka. Dinner there was just terrific. This little locals hang-out was fabulous, comfortable, and the people there couldn't have been nicer. I enjoyed a delicious Thai curry with chicken (the first time on this two-month European trip that we didn't focus on eating local fare) and my husband had Duck Confit (French!)....both were outstanding and it was actually a nice break from all the traditional German and Czech dishes (even though we loves those dishes, too). Tuesday was pretty much a full day of wine tasting, with the exception of an early morning excursion to the Archaeological Park in Pavlov, which was really quite interesting, both in terms of the award winning eco-designed architecture of the museum, and the displays of their 40-50 thousand year-old relics, still positioned right where they were originally discovered in their archaeological digs. It was very well done and well-worth the visit (you really don't need to do wine-tasting ALL day, especially that early in the day). At one of the wineries we visited on the second day, Gotberg (one of my favorites), our wine-tasting experience was led by the chief wine maker...a charmingly friendly and wine-passionate young man (whose looks, mannerisms, smile, and eyes reminded us of our son). While we enjoyed all the wineries we visited in Moravia, this one had a special calling for us. Along the way, we realized why Czech wines are so little known in the US. Although the Czechs have been making wines in this region for over 600 years (they claim their Riesling is the King of Wines and the Wine of Kings), when the Communists took over all the buildings and all the businesses after WWII, they (the Communists) had no idea how to produce wine and basically ran these old historic businesses into the ground. It was only after the Velvet Revolution that some enterprising citizens decided to revitalize the wine making industry and started planting new vineyards. By US standards, the Moravian vineyards look very young (much shorter, smaller vines than we are used to seeing in Napa). Most of the wineries we visited were less than 20 years old. But we must say, these people are very passionate and proud (deservedly so) of their wines and all they have accomplished since the turn of this century. From a wine-tourist's perspective, it's more like touring Tuscany maybe 50 years ago (albeit, even then, Tuscan vineyards would have been around for a much longer time, just without the tourists). The Czech wine region is delightfully tourist-free and really a wonderful experience. We highly recommend it for anyone who has an interest in exploring new and untried wines (especially whites). On the third and last day, our wine travel guide, Andrea, took us on a hike up to the top of the highest point in Mikulov for a great 360 degree view of the region, followed by a tour of the Castle in the town of Lednice (the summer "cottage" of the Liechtenstein family, for whom that other country is so named). The castle was spectacular (it didn't matter to us that the group tour was conducted in Czech, with no English translation)..the opulent wood-carved interior architecture and the massive castle grounds were incredible and well worth a visit. The town of Lednice appeared to be just as charming a place to stay as Mikulov, but Mikulov has far fewer (if any) tourists, which certainly appealed more to us as a home-base for this three-day adventure. Overall, our wine tour guide, Andrea (a Prague native), was highly efficient, well-organized, and a great conversationalist. She kept us on our very active schedule without ever making us feel rushed. We highly recommend hiring her or her Wine Travel in Czech business partner, Isabella (who we understand is from Paris), if you ever decide to visit the Czech wine region. It's a really special place to go if you want to get away from the tourist hubbub and be one of the first in your area to become more knowledgeable on Czech wine. It was certainly a very special and unique part of our almost two months exploration in central / eastern Europe.

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