History of viticulture in Moravia
The first vineyards in Roman colonies behind the Alps were established between 276–282, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The oldest witnesses to wine-growing in Moravia are the archaeological findings of the wine-growers’ tools, with which the Roman legionaries worked with on the vineyards below Pálava.
Viticulture developed further in the period of the Great Moravian Empire. The mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and the need of wine for liturgical purposes supported spreading of vineyards. In 892 the Great Moravian Duke Svatopluk sent the Bohemian Duke Bořivoj and his wife Ludmila a barrel of Moravian wine to celebrate the birthday of their son Spytihněv. It was a wonderful gift; as Bořivoj and Ludmila immediately started to support the establishment of the first vineyards in Bohemia, which are mentioned in medieval parchments and monastery chronicles. Those are the oldest preserved written documents in our land and at the same time the oldest proofs of wine-growing.
Vineyards – climate – soil
The wine-growing region Moravia is presently composed of four sub-regions: Velké Pavlovice, Znojmo, Mikulov and Slovácko. It involves circa 96 % of area of registered vineyards in the Czech Republic, whilst the total vineyard area reaches 18,000 hectares. The uniqueness of Moravian wines is given by the specific climate conditions, various geological origin, variability of individual vintages, countryside relief as well as the historical traditions of individual parts of Moravia. The local wines thanks to this variability were gifted with attractive flowery tones in aroma, pleasant unobtrusive acid and easy taste encouraging to take another sip.
Blue Hills
Blue Hills is not only the name of our wines. It is a terroir of 5 wine towns of Velké Pavlovice, Němčičky, Bořetice, Kobylí and Vrbice. As the towns are surrounded by hills planted by vine and most of the varieties are blue for red wines production, this is why the terroir was named „Modré Hory“, or Blue Hills in English.