We have prepared a guide to „burčák“ (young fermented wine) for you so that you can enjoy it even more this year.

In the second part of the burčák guide, we focused on its quality, price, we will also give you tips on just storage and we will explore the positive effect on health.

In the third and final part, we share a recipe for making burčák at home with minimal equipment and we also added a recipe for apple burčák.

The summer has been very warm this year and accompanied by a lack of moisture in the vineyards. Many older vineyards coped with the drought, owing to their deep root system, and the minor and younger vineyards received vast drip irrigation. Just like last year, warm days and cooler nights alternated this year. This temperature volatility has beneficial effect on the content of aromatic substances in the grapes and the structure of acids. Let us hope no misfortune happens during the last days that the grapes are on the vine and we will most likely have a very pleasant vintage!

We will start the Burčák season 2023 right from the beginning of September. According to the latest information, you can expect burčák from the winery Víno Hruška from Blatnička village.

We traditionally start with the Irsai Oliver variety, which will gradually be replaced by Moravian Muscat and Muller Thurgau. This will be followed by everyone’s favorite pink burčák from Svatovavřinecké variety and we will end the season with red burčák of Zweigeltrebe variety.

You can find the very best burčák in Prague at Dobrotéka in Žižkov and Vinohrady district. For current opening hours see here.

If you find yourself unable to visit us in Dobrotéka, we recommend buying burčák directly from the winemaker or at the Prague wine harvest vintages, where we annualy participate.

If you want high-quality burčák, we do not recommend buying burčák from roadside stands and similar places where the origin is unclear and considerate storage is not guaranteed.

22.9. 2023 Wine harves at Grébovka, náměstí Míru, Praha
23.9.2023 Wine harves at Grébovka, Havlíčkovy sady (park Grébovka)

If you want high-quality burčák, we do not recommend buying burčák from roadside stands and similar places where the origin is unclear and considerate storage is not guaranteed.

Burčák is a Central European rarity that you can taste only few weeks a year. Burčák is not produced anywhere else in the world. And it is definitely worth tasting.

It is an intermediate product created during the wine production. The juice from the grapes is left to ferment, so it is a partially fermented grape must, which contains a balanced and harmonious ratio of alcohol, sugar and acids.

Burčák can be sold from August 1 to November 30, but its main season is in September. The start of burčák mainly affects the region and the weather, which has a major influence on the ripening of the grapes and the subsequent harvest.

The name „burčák“ may only represent partially fermented grape must, which was made solely from wine grapes that were harvested and processed in the Czech Republic. Partially fermented grapes of foreign production ought to be labeled as partially fermented grape must.

Always read the label or tag carefully when purchasing. Sellers try different tricks to fool you. It could be, for example, a „grunt“. At first glance, you may not distinguish any other inscription, but the content will certainly not include burčák in the bottle.

Burčák is most often made of remarkably aromatic white grapes varieties — Irsai Oliver, Moravian Muscat and Müller Thurgau. Red burčák is made of blue varieties — Svatovavřinecké and Frankovka — which is rather scarce. A truly rare experience is burčák rosé, which is produced by a short maceration of blue grapes with their peels.

We will offer all types of burčák gradually as the grapes ripen.

For the production of a good burčák, a high-quality primary raw material – grapes – is essential. A winemaker starts picking grapes early in the morning when it is still cold and the grapes are chilled. Their quick transfer from the vineyard to the winery and swift processing is key to preserve all the aromatic substances that are utterly sensitive to heat.

The grapes are de-stemmed and crushed. Crushing must be gentle so that bitterness from the seeds does not get into the must. Subsequently, everything is pressed.

Thanks to the yeast that live naturally in the vineyard, the must spontaneously starts to ferment boisterously. Sugar turn into alcohol and produce heat and carbon dioxide. This causes a fine sparkling. However, yeast has limited lifespan. At the moment when the alcohol rises to approximately 6% of the volume, yeast die out as well as burčák that transforms on. Wine yeast complete the fermentation process and the result is classic wine as we all know it.

The key factor is to cool the burčak at the right moment. This limits the activity of the yeast and slows down the whole process so that burčák reaches customers in good condition. If containers and bottles with burčák stand stll on the sun for example by the road, there is real risk the heat will enhance progress to the stage of so-called „soapy“ o rit transforms into young wine. Another consequence of the temperature is that it starts to lose its aromatic substances quickly.

The burčák, which you get from us in Dobrotéka, will still have the so-called must settling, so you need not to worry that it will affect your bowels.

What affects the price of burčák, what is its composition and how to store it properly. These topics we will discuss in the second part of this Burčák guide.