“I wanted to start a new era of Znojmo where the understanding of both the Czechs and the Austrians needs to be improved. Wine is a perfect social glue for this,” Jan Čulik.

We’ve spent the Saturday of this past weekend in the Southern Czech town of Znojmo, a single train station from the last Austrian village on the other (Northern) side of the border. It made me think that Jan Čulik, the Bottled Alive festival founder and a Alma Wines importer partner, should be compensated by the local or the Czech national tourism board. We otherwise wouldn’t have gone to Znojmo most probably. (It’s a historical town worth a visit if you’re passing near by. As a rule of thumb by now in Czech Republic, the few coffee shops there with their savory and sweet baked goods are some of the best in this part of the world and there’s considerable history to explore.)

Znojmo hosted Jan’s first edition of Nachbarn festival on 1 August 2026, a day’s event envisaged as a gathering of winegrowers from the area around the both sides of the border only. I don’t know where the organizers drew the physical line for winery selections, but, man, was this a micro event. We at Karakterre specialize in events with regional focus but this was micro on another level. A splendid idea! It spotlit the growers that, roughly put, share the terroir, but, more than that- share the culture of the Sudeten region, despite (or in spite?) of the historical political divide.

“In Sudetenland the history has been very much interrupted. I wanted to start a new era of Znojmo. Here, the understanding of both the Czechs and the Austrians needs to be improved. Wine is a perfect social glue for this!” said Čulik.

The event give wine the social-political context that it always has- something we’re possibly too uncomfortable to talk about. (Read this Wikipedia entry if you’d like to bring yourself up to speed with the Sudetenland history.)

“It’s beautiful we’re coming together like this. There is good harmony here. It’s the same people from both sides of the border, we’re not so different,” said Elisabeth Rücker when I tasted with her. Her winery is roughy 20 minutes drive from Znojmo across the border in Austria.

Elisabeth’s words were echoed by those of Josef Leisser, one of Donatus winery partners. Donatus is located some 24 minutes drive from Znojmo in South Moravia. “The festival proved that our common language is a love for the region, friendship, and good wine, which knows no borders.”

It was a good day for tasting. The wines presented were a beautiful micro regional mosaic of different land, grape and vinification expressions. A welcome addition was the granite soil masterclass by Florian Schumann of Quantum winery (Granite retains little water. What to do in times of climate change? Generally speaking, Grüner doesn’t like granite, Riesling does).

Wineries gathered at Nachbarn were:

CZ: Martin Vajčner, Špalkovi, Dobra Vinice, Michal Kacetl, Loigi, Dva Duby, Špetici, Donatus, Aleš Kovar.

AT: Schöfmann & Schöfmann, Fidesser, Katharina Gessl, Strohschneider, Buchmayer, Quantum Winery, Leo Uibel, Elisabeth Rücker.

Jan and his team did a good job, making me wonder if micro regionality with micro grower representation (I managed to taste with almost all 17 wineries in a single half-day) actually was one of the futures of wine festivals.

Marko

PS Read more about Jan Čulik and his passions in our Karakterre Journal entry here.

PPS Znojmo coffee shops/bakeries to visit are Balance (two outlets), Pulnapul, Kava na Knopp. Pastries looked very good at U Karla restaurant but we didn’t go as the organizers kindly shared winemaker’s lunch with us (barley, beetroot, carrot, other stuff).

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In other news: We’re finalizing details for our next Karakterre event, number 19, in New York on 24 October. Wineries that would like to participate can apply here. We’ll publish all the public details soon! Hope everyone’s having a good Summer.

Karakterre Travel: Nachbarn Festival, Znojmo

“I wanted to start a new era of Znojmo where the understanding of both the Czechs and the Austrians needs to be improved. Wine is a perfect social glue for this,” Jan Čulik.