Organic & Red from Bořetice
Vinařství Bystřický is a young, fiercely focused family winery in the village of Bořetice, in the Velké Pavlovice sub-region of South Moravia, Czech Republic. Founded in 2016 by Vojta Bystřický and Anna Holásková, the estate began with a single hectare and has grown to 3.5 hectares farmed in organic regime — certified organic since 2023 — and is now transitioning toward biodynamic viticulture. The family tends five beehives among the vines, treats the vineyard with herbal preparations of nettle and horsetail, and rejects all commercial laboratory products. In the cellar, the philosophy is equally uncompromising: no fining, minimal filtration, and a mandatory minimum of 12 months sur lie ageing in oak barrels — a regimen that has shifted from French oak toward Czech cooperages made from Czech oak. The result is a small, red-dominant portfolio of ~6,000 bottles annually — wines that are honest, alive, and deeply connected to the loess and limestone hills of Bořetice.
One Hectare & the Heartfelt Cuvée
The story of Vinařství Bystřický begins in 2016 with a single hectare of vines in Bořetice and a young couple — Vojta Bystřický and Anna Holásková — who decided to farm organically from day one. There was no inherited estate, no centuries-old cellar, no family tradition to lean on. There was only a conviction that wine should be made in harmony with nature, and that the Velké Pavlovice sub-region — historically one of Moravia's most important red-wine terroirs — deserved producers who treated its soils with reverence rather than chemistry.
From the beginning, Vojta and Anna rejected the conventional playbook. They did not ease into organic farming; they began there. They did not experiment with biodynamics as a marketing afterthought; they built the vineyard with natural preparations, biodiversity corridors, and five beehives integrated into the ecosystem from the early years. The vineyard sprays are macerations of nettle and horsetail — no synthetic fungicides, no systemic herbicides, no laboratory shortcuts. In 2023, after seven years of quiet, uncompromising work, the estate received its organic certification — a formal recognition of practices that had already defined the project from its first vintage.
The emotional centre of the estate is the Cuvée Kopce — the wine that comes from the family's first vineyard, the original hectare planted in 2016. It is described by the family with unguarded affection as their "heartfelt creation" — a wine that carries not just the terroir of Bořetice but the memory of every early morning, every uncertain frost, and every decision to choose patience over convenience. Today, the winery has expanded to 3.5 hectares, but that first vineyard remains the spiritual anchor of the project — a reminder that the best wines are often born not from scale, but from intimacy with a single piece of ground.
"Our beloved Cuvée Kopce comes from our first vineyard, making it a heartfelt creation."
— Vojta & Anna Bystřický
Bořetice & the Velké Pavlovice Hills
Bořetice is a wine village in the heart of the Velké Pavlovice wine sub-region — one of the warmest and most red-wine-oriented areas of South Moravia. The landscape is a rolling mosaic of loess-covered hills, south-facing slopes, and shallow limestone subsoils that have made the region famous for structured, deeply coloured red wines since the 19th century. The Bystřický vineyards sit among these hills, exposed to the full Moravian sun, benefiting from the warm days that build phenolic ripeness in blue varieties and the cool nights that preserve acidity and aromatic freshness.
The family farms 3.5 hectares with a focus on blue (red) grape varieties — a deliberate choice that reflects both the terroir and their personal passion. The Velké Pavlovice region is not a place for delicate, pale wines; it is a place for structure, depth, and dark fruit. The Bystřický vineyards are treated with herbal preparations — nettle for vigour and trace minerals, horsetail for fungal resistance and silica strength — and the five beehives scattered through the property ensure pollination of cover crops and the overall health of the vineyard ecosystem. The family is now transitioning to biodynamic principles, observing lunar cycles, composting vineyard waste, and preparing to introduce biodynamic preparations 500 and 501 in the coming seasons.
The Bořetice terroir is characterised by loess soils over limestone bedrock — a combination that provides excellent drainage, moderate water stress, and a mineral backbone that prevents the region's naturally warm climate from producing overly plush or flabby wines. The Bystřický family's organic and biodynamic practices have begun to reveal a finer, more articulate expression of this terroir: wines that carry the dark fruit and structure expected of Velké Pavlovice, but with a clarity, freshness, and soil-transparency that conventional farming often obscures. The result is a portfolio that is unmistakably Moravian — generous, structured, and sun-kissed — but with a natural-wine honesty that allows the vineyard to speak before the cellar does.
The Bystřický vineyards are located in the village of Bořetice, in the Velké Pavlovice sub-region of South Moravia — one of the warmest and most historically significant red-wine areas of the Czech Republic. The site consists of rolling loess hills with south-facing slopes and shallow limestone subsoil, providing excellent drainage and natural water stress that concentrates flavours in blue grape varieties. The village is part of a dense network of Moravian wine communities and is accessible from Brno and the wider South Moravian wine route. The surrounding landscape is agricultural, with vineyards, orchards, and the characteristic white wine-cellars (búdy) that dot the Moravian countryside.
The Bořetice terroir is defined by wind-deposited loess soils over active limestone bedrock — a classic Moravian red-wine profile that provides warmth, drainage, and mineral structure. The Bystřický family maintains five beehives within the vineyard ecosystem, supporting biodiversity, cover-crop pollination, and the overall resilience of the site. The vineyard is treated exclusively with natural herbal preparations — nettle and horsetail macerations — with no synthetic chemicals, no commercial fertilisers, and no laboratory inputs. The family is transitioning from organic to biodynamic viticulture, preparing to introduce horn manure and horn silica preparations in the coming seasons.
Vinařství Bystřický has been certified organic since 2023, formalising practices that began in 2016. The estate rejects all synthetic treatments, herbicides, and systemic fungicides, relying instead on biodiversity, cover crops, natural predators, and herbal sprays. The transition to biodynamics is underway, with the family observing natural cycles, composting all vineyard waste, and planning the introduction of biodynamic preparations. The goal is not merely to avoid chemicals but to build a self-regulating vineyard ecosystem where the soil, the vines, the bees, and the surrounding flora function as a single, living organism.
In the cellar, the Bystřický philosophy is one of gentle, patient restraint. Grapes are processed using the most gentle methods, with no technological interventions. The wines are not fined (nečiříme) and are minimally filtered — only when absolutely necessary. All red wines are aged sur lie for a minimum of 12 months in oak barrels. The family began with French oak but has gradually incorporated barrels from Czech cooperages made from Czech oak, seeking to root the wine's wood character in the same Central European landscape that grew the grapes. After barrel ageing, the wines mature in bottle until they reach the desired vitality before release.
Czech Oak & the Sur Lie Mandate
For Vojta Bystřický, the cellar is not a place to correct the vineyard; it is a place to protect what the vineyard has already achieved. The guiding principle is radical simplicity: process the grapes gently, avoid technological interventions, and give the wine time — ample time — to find its own voice. This begins with hand-harvesting from the family's own organically farmed vines and continues through a regimen that is defined by what the Bystřickýs refuse to do rather than by what they add.
The most distinctive feature of the Bystřický cellar is the mandatory 12-month minimum sur lie ageing in oak barrels for all red wines. The wines rest on their fine lees, gaining texture, complexity, and a subtle autolytic richness that rounds the natural tannins of Moravian blue varieties without resorting to additives or aggressive manipulation. The barrel programme has evolved deliberately: the family began with French oak — the industry standard for fine red wine — but has gradually shifted toward Czech cooperages using Czech oak. This is not a nationalist gesture; it is a terroir-driven decision. Czech oak, harvested from the forests of Central Europe, shares a seasoning and tannin profile with the Moravian landscape, and the Bystřickýs have found that it integrates more seamlessly with the dark fruit and mineral structure of their Bořetice wines.
The wines are not fined. Clarification occurs naturally through sedimentation, time, and gravity. Filtration is used only minimally and only when a wine's stability genuinely demands it — many cuvées are bottled with only the lightest possible polish, preserving the natural texture, aromatic complexity, and microbial vitality that define natural wine. Sulphur is kept to the absolute minimum necessary for protection during bottling and transport. The result is a style that Vojta describes with quiet confidence: fresh, juicy, elegant — red wines that carry the sun of Velké Pavlovice but also the honesty of uncompromising, low-intervention craft.
This approach places Vinařství Bystřický within the new generation of Moravian natural winemakers — not rebellious, but principled. Vojta and Anna are not ideologues; they are pragmatic farmers who have chosen, after years of organic vineyard work, to let the cellar mirror the vineyard rather than dominate it. The result is wine that is natural not by fashion but by conviction, and that carries the unmistakable signature of Bořetice: dark fruit, firm structure, loess warmth, and the quiet complexity of Czech oak and extended lees contact.
Herbal Preparations, Czech Oak & the 12-Month Sur Lie Rule
The guiding principle of Vinařství Bystřický is that the wine is made by the vineyard, spoken by the loess and limestone of Bořetice, and bottled with nothing corrected. The organic and biodynamic farming provides healthy, complex grapes. The nettle and horsetail sprays provide vitality and resistance without chemicals. The Czech oak barrels — increasingly from local cooperages — provide the quiet, forest-aligned structure that supports rather than masks the wine. And the mandatory 12-month sur lie ageing provides the texture, depth, and autolytic richness that turns Moravian red fruit into something layered and alive. The cellar is not a factory; it is a continuation of the vineyard — a place where patience, Czech wood, and absolute respect for the grape translate the Velké Pavlovice hills into wine that is honest, structured, and unmistakably of Bořetice.
Cabernet Moravia, Zweigeltrebe & the Bořetice Portfolio
Vinařství Bystřický produces a small, red-dominant portfolio of approximately 6,000 bottles annually from their 3.5 hectares in Bořetice — wines that are fresh, juicy, and elegantly structured, expressing the warm loess hills and limestone bedrock of the Velké Pavlovice sub-region through the lens of organic farming, Czech oak ageing, and uncompromisingly gentle cellar work. The range is built around blue grape varieties typical of the region: Cabernet Moravia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zweigeltrebe, Dornfelder, Blaufränkisch, St. Laurent, and Pinot Noir. All wines share a common foundation: hand-harvested organic grapes from the family's own vines, spontaneous fermentation, a minimum 12 months sur lie in French and Czech oak barrels, and bottling without fining, with minimal filtration, and with only the minimum necessary sulfur. The result is a range that is as site-specific as it is honest: dark-fruited, structured, layered with lees complexity, and deeply rooted in the Bořetice hills — a testament to the conviction that the best red wines are those that come from healthy soil, patient wood, and the refusal to rush.
Bořetice & the Five Beehives
Vinařství Bystřický is not merely a winery; it is a young family's covenant with a hillside and its bees — a proof that a single hectare planted in 2016, farmed organically from the first day, and tended with herbal preparations and biodynamic intention, can produce wine of remarkable honesty and regional truth. In an era when the Velké Pavlovice sub-region is often associated with volume and commercial accessibility, Vojta and Anna have proven that 3.5 hectares of organically farmed loess slope, made with Czech oak and a mandatory 12-month sur lie regimen, can produce wines of unmistakable identity — wines that taste of nowhere else but Bořetice.
The legacy of Bystřický is the legacy of principled beginnings. They did not inherit tradition; they invented it — starting with organic farming, building their own cellar philosophy, and gradually shifting from French oak to Czech cooperages in a quiet act of terroir patriotism. The five beehives in their vineyard are not a decorative touch; they are a symbol of the family's understanding that wine is an agricultural product inseparable from the health of the entire ecosystem. The nettle and horsetail sprays, the cover crops, the composting, and the planned introduction of biodynamic preparations are not marketing tools but daily labour — the work of a couple who live among their vines and measure their year by the agricultural calendar rather than the fiscal one.
The future of the estate is tied to the future of the Bořetice vineyard and the family that tends it. As Vojta and Anna continue to expand their biodynamic practice, as their Czech oak barrels accumulate seasoning and wisdom, and as their first vineyard — the source of Cuvée Kopce — enters its second decade of organic cultivation, the project remains what it has always been: a young winery with an old soul. The story of Vinařství Bystřický is the story of a hectare that became a philosophy — still growing, still learning, still proving that the best wine from Bořetice is the one that needs no explanation, only a glass, a meal, and the patience to let the loess and the bees speak.
"With love for nature we are moving towards natural wines. Red wines from the barrel are typical for us."
— Vinařství Bystřický