Špillar Winery

The shining façade, the stone cladding and the well thought-out interior of the new wine cellar in Hodonice reveal that František Špillar has fulfilled his dream after thirty years of "small-scale wine cellaring". He started making wine with his father-in-law, continued in his own small cellar under the family house and in 1999 started building a new cellar. The original intention to acquire a space for aging and storing wines eventually evolved into a building with a pressing room, three cellar corridors (for wine production, archiving and seating) and the necessary facilities for guests. Due to their good experience with processing purchased grapes, the Spillars switched entirely to making wine with ingredients from friends. The winery aims to process small lots of 250 - 1,000 litres in a wide range of 15 - 20 varieties. The grapes come from Kraví Hora near Znojmo, from the Špičák track in Kyjovice and from Stara Hora in Božice. The winery produces around 10,000 bottles of wine a year using a combination of traditional and modern methods. The 2010 vintage was processed for the first time on a modern grinder allowing gentle handling of the raw material and a new pneumatic press. The cellar is ready for a target capacity of 20 000 litres. Guided tastings can be arranged for groups of up to 60 guests, with an ideal number of 30 for food tastings. In addition to František Špillar Sr., who gradually worked his way up to winemaking through his own experience, the winery is also run by his wife Libuše and occasionally by his son František, a graduate of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Lednice.