Wine route Stará hora - steppe trails and old vineyards

Mikulov is the best place to start this trip, not only as a wine center but primarily as a town with an unusual concentration of unique – mainly Renaissance and Baroque – landmarks. This Moravian regional center of the Jewish community, as well as the family seat of the powerful Dietrichsteins, bears many traces of its former rulers on its face: the proudly rising castle tower invites visitors to explore the castle exhibitions or the huge wine cellar, the square and streets of the Baroque center tell tales of the region's wealth and luxury through stately bourgeois houses, just as the corners of churches and the synagogue speak of the spiritual depth of its inhabitants. Above the town's silhouette on the white rocks, the remains of the watchtower of the Goat Castle stand as a monument to the many hardships of this town located on the main route between the Moravian and Austrian capitals. You can wander through Mikulov’s nooks all day and still not see them all. However, if you seek more nature and views of vineyard slopes, it's better to head most directly through the town up into the Pavlov and Dunajovice Hills.

Following the valley path between Svatý kopeček on the south side and the wooded Turold on the north side, we leave the town into the Pavlov Hills and symbolically cross the main ridge of Pálava at Kočičí Rock. Before us lies the lovely wine village of Bavory beneath the beautiful natural scenery of the western slopes of the Pavlov Hills. The inhabitants of Bavory have grown grapevines under Pálava since time immemorial. The wine produced here, mainly white, was then sold to local hosts and merchants. The village has retained its agricultural and wine-growing character to this day. On the municipal seal of Bavory, a church tower is depicted between two vine shoots. Today, this tradition is upheld by the Tanzberg winery, which owns many of the surrounding vineyard plots as well as significant wine cellars on the village's edge.

Also, the neighboring village of Perná near today’s Brno – Mikulov – Vienna state road was once an important trade route. This ancient settlement in the Mikulov estate is mentioned as early as the 13th century. The first known written evidence dates back to 1322, naming the village Pairdorf. However, rare archaeological finds prove human presence from the Stone Age, with other settlements in the northern part of the village from the Late Bronze Age, finds of the Volutová culture, and numerous burial urn fields.

Dolní Dunajovice, the largest wine village in the Czech Republic, manages over 56 hectares of vineyards. This ancient village is adorned by the Baroque Church of St. Giles with a Gothic core, although its appearance owes much to the mid-19th-century renovations, as well as a Baroque rectory and a pillory from the 18th century. The rural houses with Baroque gables forming the main village green still bear traces of life and the economy of the original German-speaking inhabitants of the border area. For example, the first Austrian president, Dr. Karel Renner, was born here.

Above Dunajovice rise the extensive Dunajovice Hills. This valuable area, protected as a unique national natural reserve, lies on the western slope of the Zadní Dunajovice ridge from Malá Slunečná to the highest point of the hills, Velká Slunečná (283 m above sea level). The highest peak carries the charm and sign of unfinished work: Velká Slunečná was terraced but was never planted with vineyards, so it has turned into a steppe today. On the terraces, a colony of wild rabbits rules, and only the wind whistles above them.

The field and steppe section from Dunajovice ends in the vineyards of the western slopes, where the Dunajovice Hills tilt towards the Dyje floodplain flooded by the upper part of the Novomlýnsk reservoirs. Brod nad Dyjí (Ford over the Dyje) testifies by its name to the ancient importance of the site on the paths where it was possible to cross the lowland stream Dyje. In the village, a wine colony greets us as usual. The steeper slopes of the hills, at the base of which we come within sight of Novosedly, are the famous Stará hora (Old Hill), which we set out on this trip to explore. Instead of visiting the village, which boasts one of the few original Romanesque buildings in the Břeclav region, the Church of St. Oldřich, we head to the vineyard track, whose history and present are documented by the Stará Hora educational wine trail. It runs through vineyards up to the hilltop with an exceptional view of the landscape under Pálava. The 3.5 km loop, equipped with 11 panels, informs about the grape varieties grown here, details about winemaking, viticulture, wine laws, and proper wine tasting principles. We can conclude the visit to the educational trail with a tour of the Marcinčák winery, where wine production and year-round wine tasting are on display. For organized groups, sitting in a tasting cellar with refreshments or an entire Moravian wine evening, possibly with cimbalom music and guided wine tasting, can be arranged. Equally famous is the Kovács Wineyard with a cellar on Mikulov Street.

The southernmost part of the Dunajovice Hills belongs to another unique cultural colony: its settlement by Croatian inhabitants who fled south from the Turks in the 16th century and lived here until the post-war period. Known in Moravia then as Charváti, they settled southern Břeclavsko and Mikulovsko, with Nový Přerov and Dobré Pole on our route as their villages. Although they were resettled inland between 1947 and 1951, the landscape and architecture still bear traces of their work today. The long-term proximity to the Iron Curtain preserved the area, preventing any development since that time. This is only now felt as lively cycling tourism has brought both villages onto the routes of major domestic and European cycling arteries, such as Greenways Praha-Wien and the future EuroVelo 9. Thus, the forgotten corner of Nový Přerov has become, in addition, a crossing point for Greenways routes with a renovated village and a cozy bike camp in the former Jáň’s Farm.

The picturesque hill of Přerovský vrch (237 m a.s.l.) is known not only to botanists for its feather grass steppe but mainly to winemakers. Like many other areas above Nový Přerov, it is planted with vineyards scattered with wine cellars. These cellars were built here with taste and peasant modesty by the early Croatian settlers. Near the station in Březí, it’s worth turning into the village. The cellar colony U rybníka (By the Pond) is an example of cellar modernism from the 1920s, and several winemakers offering wine tastings and information on winemaking technologies are based on Sklepní Street next door.

We conclude our journey through the Mikulov area by returning along the former border guard trail – signal trail – back to the region's metropolis. To the station or finally to some pleasant wine corner.