Imperishable viticulture

Records from the 14th century show a single hectare in Kobylice was more expensive than twenty hectares of fields. This old vineyard village boasts a famous history of viticulture and grapes have been grown here since the 13th century. There are many reminders of the abundant production of wine in the past: ancient and deep wine cellars scattered all over the settlement, old pressing houses, wooden presses and dated barrels, inscriptions with handmade decorations. Since then, viticulture in Kobylí has undergone many changes, upturns as well as downturns. Before the Thirty Years’ War, there were about 2700 měřice (that is 1350 hectares) of vineyards – after the war only 43 měřice remained – mostly on vine-covered hillsides. The fall of Moravian viticulture in the 17th century was a result of the war. The following century, by contrast, was the golden age of wine, and was brought about by technological advances. Fertilization by manure was introduced along with the treatment of bushes by hydroxide cuprum (so-called broth of Bordeaux). Using cuprum ewers and more effective screw presses became widespread at that time. The decline of viticulture after 1800 was caused by several factors: the Napoleonic wars, the abolition of serfdom, the discovery of beet sugar, which made production of brandy cheaper, a series of bad crops between 1813 and 1825 and also a disastrous cholera epidemic in 1831. And just when the situation began to improve – in 1879 the Emperor Franz Joseph I and the Empress Elisabeth took part in a hunt here and the emperor commended the local wine – the Phylloxera louse was imported into Europe. In 1890, the vintage was marred by a great hailstorm and in 1921 a grape infestation of acariasis appeared around the settlement. Viticulture in the village was stabilised in 1937 due to the establishment of a bulk purchase shop for grapes. Viticulture had its boom in the 1970s under the head of the state farmers’ co-op, Metoděj Foretník. But this very capable manager also supported rather dubious projects, like, for example, the felling of 24 hectares of forest in order to set up vineyards there. It was not possible to work the plot and the location was later nicknamed Foretník’s bald patch. In the 1990s, about 300 hectares of first-rate vineyards existed around the village.    

Live history

The club of friends of history of Kobylí established in the underground parts of the local museum a permanent exposition of traditional small-size production of wine with a wine shop, where you can taste wines from local vintners. Those who want to learn something about local history can take a walk along the educational trail that will take you to the spring ‘U Skalky’ (By the Rock) associated with many legends. But there are also records and memories of the locals – the chronicler Jaroslav Kučera complained in 1967: "We fought so that land would belong to those who work it. But nowadays the land brings profit to those who neither work it nor own it. Parents work the vineyards, the young people from towns just drop in to pick up some wine."

Ancient cellars and pressing houses protected as cultural monuments

Most cellars are to be found in the locality of ‘Suchořádská Zmola’. There used to be a ‘zmola’, that is a ravine, but it caved in 1900. Nowadays it is a cellar lane, a place where vintners not only work but also meet to taste the local production of wines. There is an old oak press in the rear section of the complex, a present to the settlement of Kobylí from local citizen Ludvík Vrbas. The former ravine is not the only cellar locality around the village. Almost 50 cellars of differing ages are located at the railway track. When passing through the settlement, take note of ancient cellars – some of them are protected as cultural monuments of folk architecture. Pressing houses n. 444 and 530 were built around 1800. In Baráky street, you will find Křižák’s cellar. Svoboda’s cellar is located in Augusta Šebestová street. Another example of original architecture is Pekařík’s cellar in V Kútku street. Wine cellars are constructed of stone and earth, sometimes also of burnt bricks. A pressing house used to house wooden presses, a beautiful specimen of timberwork and woodcarving from local craftsmen. A wine press from Kobylí dated 1830 is exhibited in the museum of the chateau of Mikulov. There are not many original presses from the mid-19th century preserved, but many new multi-storey pressing houses have been erected. Vineyard wooden props were expensive in this forest-free region. They were therefore pulled out of the ground and stored for winter at home. Very often the bottom part of the prop was treated by fire, which practice protected it from rot.  During the Prussian War in 1866, armies confiscated great amounts of wine and so the local vintner Josef Kaňa disguised himself as a blacksmith (he put on a blacksmith’s apron over the vintner’s one) to divert the attention of soldiers from his cellar. As for vintners’ superstitions, it’s worth mentioning a Christmas day custom when nutshells are used to tell future: the shells are filled with wine and sent downstream. The locking of mountains, which takes place on the day of the Queenship of Mary, was nicely described by the writer and connoisseur of the region Jan Herben: “…suddenly the whole region comes to life, as bonfires are lit all across the landscape: neighbours in the settlements of Kobylice and Hovorany, and on the other side the same: bonfires in Morkůvky and Krumvíře. Mountains are being locked in many parts in the region. I can see a burning fire far away on a hill at Buchlovice.” Nowadays in Kobylí the mountain is initiated on the last Saturday in August: “Amateur actors perform the locking in the way it used to happen in the former century: a scribe reads out the rules, vineyard watchmen decorate the hill and vintners thrash the ground with grapevine props as a symbol of work in the vineyard.

Feast in Kobylí (third week in June)

Locking of the mountain (August)

Sanctification of wine on the day of St John

(27. 12. – vintners believe that drinking wine on this day will protect a man from all illnesses for the whole year to come.)