Mutenice wine festival - Oct 9, 2010

Ever since our friend Jana told us about the wine festival, we were interested in experiencing our first wine festival in the Czech Republic. The weather had been awful up until the day in question, and so we were so glad that the sun finally decided to come out. Just perfect weather for hiking and wine tasting!

The wine festival was a lot bigger than I imagined. The small town (or village) called Mutenice is located south of Brno (about an hour by train ride); close to the border with Austria.

Coming out of the train station, I was flabbergasted. The area was packed with people and stalls selling all kinds of food, wine, and crafts. There were a couple of wine cellars right outside of the station, but we knew that the main cellars were located in the valley (over the hills) which was about a 40-minute hike away. The concept of the festival was to enjoy the hike to the main valley while enjoying the Burcak (young wine) on your way there.

We called Jana to check where in the main valley they were. We grabbed a quick lunch and started our hike with a glass of Burcak. Of course, we got lost on the way there (okay, my bad), but we enjoyed the scenic hike and finally got to the main valley about an hour later. The valley was completely packed with people. It felt as if half the Czech population was there! And, we finally met up with Jana's family including her lovely baby Katerina.

The hike itself was just so soothing and fun, and the main valley was like an another world with music, dancing, and people laying on the ground just enjoying the sun and Burcak. the combination of sun and alcohol definitely have certain effect to people's brain. It releases you from everything :)