Krasna Hora

Krasna Hora is a small family business from the Southeast of the Czech Republic, an hour's drive from Vienna. The Vybíral family has been making wines here since the 1960s. They have been doing this biodynamically for a long time. Since a few years they also make natural wines. That is not always easy in this relatively cool area, which is at the same altitude as Burgundy and Alsace. Their 'cool climate' wines are characterized by their finesse and purity. They are low alcohol and very refined. Krasna Hora is very successful, they supply the house wines for Yotam Ottolenghi's restaurant in London.

Krasna Hora means 'beautiful hills'. Those hills are located around the village of Stary Podvorov, in the Czech 'wine province' Moravia. Cistenzer monks already made wine here in the thirteenth century. They mainly did this from French grape varieties. It is a 'cool climate' terroir. With a much more continental climate than Burgundy and Alsace, which are at the same altitude. Colder winters and warmer summers, therefore, and also a greater difference in day and night temperatures. Not surprising that the wines of Krasna Hora usually have between 11.5% and 12.5% alcohol and a refined style.

You can still find them in the vineyards of Krasna Hora, such as Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Merlot. The grandfather of the current 'padre familias' Marek Vybíral planted the first vineyards in the early sixties of the last century. A small vineyard for mainly own consumption. In 2005, the family expanded them to five hectares and now they manage 8.5 hectares of vineyard. They now press about 60,000 bottles of it every year. Just enough to get by as a family, provided the whole family helps. Marek Vybiral is the current owner and his innovative young cousin Ondřej Dubas makes the wines.

Since the start, the Vybíral family has been working biodynamically. They do not use herbicides or pesticides. The wines ferment on the wild yeasts and they add little or no sulphite. The top wines of Krasna Hora are fermented and aged in small oak barriques. They are not filtered and not clarified. So they are 'nature wines' or 'natural wines'. The family has now also released a more affordable 'hip' line with a white, orange, rosé and red natural wine, intended for the growing number of wine bars that like to work with natural wines, including in the Czech Republic.