The National Wine Competition has opened this year’s season with the evaluation of wines from the Bohemia wine region. CZU Winery achieved an excellent result, taking home two Grand Gold Medals for its 2023 Pinot Blanc and 2025 Riesling. Four additional Gold Medals were awarded to the winery’s 2022 Pinot Blanc, 2025 Müller Thurgau, 2022 Riesling, and 2025 Pinot Blanc. This year´s National Wine Competition champion in Bohemia is the 2023 Riesling from Vondrák Winery in Mělník.
The best wines from the competition were available for tasting on Wednesday, 5 August 2026, in the CZU Auditorium in Prague. The presentation of the category winners and all medal-winning wines was organized by the Guild of Czech Winemakers, with the winemakers introducing their wines to visitors themselves.
The title of champion, as well as first place in the dry white wine category, went to a 2023 late-harvest Riesling produced by the family-owned Vondrák Winery in Mělník. The wine received an impressive score of 92.67 points.
“This is the kind of wine that nature allows you to create, perhaps once in a decade. It stands out for its exceptional purity and, above all, its remarkable extract of more than 32 grams. With its character and the distinctive expression of the Mělník terroir, it can proudly compete with some of the finest wines from the Mosel and Rhine regions,” says Luděk Vondrák, the creator of this year´s champion.
Three expert panels assessed entries on 28 July at the CZU facilities in Mělník. Experienced wine experts evaluated 139 wine samples from the Bohemia wine region. In the end, nine Grand Gold Medals, 38 Gold Medals, and two Silver Medals were awarded.
In traditionally strong competition, CZU Winery also achieved a highly successful result. “I think we did very well, and what I value most is that one of our wines received the highest score in the competition. This time, we did not manage to defend the award for the best wine collection, but I am pleased that another winery won it. That will make us appreciate the award even more if we win it again in the future,” says Ing. Štěpán Weitosch, Director of the university-owned CZU Winery in Chloumek near Mělník and the newly appointed Chairman of the Guild of Czech Winemakers.
Extreme weather is one of the greatest challenges faced by every winemaker. How is this year’s drought and lack of rainfall affecting the quality of the grapes, and what impact did the spring frosts have on the vineyards?
“So far, the severe drought has not caused major problems for the vines. Grape sunburn is a greater concern. Around a quarter of the vineyard was damaged by the spring frosts,” explains Štěpán Weitosch.
At the vineyard in Chloumek near Mělník, Müller Thurgau, Pinot Blanc, and Riesling are among the varieties that perform particularly well. As for the winery’s plans, its long-standing vineyard manager says: “We want to focus more on wines produced using longer maceration.”
The National Wine Competition is the largest and most prestigious wine competition in the Czech Republic. The Winegrowers’ Association of the Czech Republic organizes the competition with financial support from the Wine Fund and technical support from the National Wine Center. In the Bohemia wine region, the Guild of Czech Winemakers organizes the competition.
This year, 120 wines from Bohemia were nominated for the national round of the Wine Salon competition. Together with qualifying wines from Moravia, they will compete for a place in the final, the title of overall champion, and inclusion in the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic.
Text: Lenka Prokopová, photo: Petr Zmek
The Winery of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague was established in 1983 in Chloumek near Mělník as a scientific facility dedicated to studying the suitability of individual vine clones for the wine region of Bohemia. As a result, the vineyard today features a wide range of clones – 36 different clones representing Riesling alone. Covering an area of 12.86 hectares, the vineyard grows ten grape varieties: Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Sylvaner, Moravian Muscat, Kerner, Blauer Portugieser, Saint Laurent, and Pinot Noir. The winery is not focused solely on wine production and sales. It also serves as an important teaching and research facility. Bachelor’s, Master’s, and doctoral research projects are carried out here, while a gene pool of selected grapevine varieties is maintained. CZU students also use the vineyard as a site for their scientific research.
