Page 387 - NEWNORMAL_ANIMATED

WINE TOURISM

Juraj Flamik
Juraj is an environmental activist, practitioner in the field
of cultural heritage and sustainable tourism and „father“ of
Moravian Wine Trails. He is the Director of the Open Wine
Cellars Festival. He was awarded the
State Order of Ľudovít Štúr by the Slovak
President Andrej Kiska for his life and
work.

MORAVIAN WINE TRAILS

Juraj Flamik´s projects of the Moravian Wine
Trail and the Open Wine Cellars Festival have
redrawn the tourist map and stimulated the
development of wine tourism in the Czech Re-
public. Born in Slovakia, where he was an im-
portant figure of anti-communist dissent, he
lives and works in Moravia in the „Partnerství“
(Partnership) Foundation.
The origin and history of the Moravian Wine
Trails is interesting and informative for any
wine region in the world. Thanks to them, the
Czech Republic holds first place in the length
and density of marked wine trails in the area of
one wine-growing region. In 2020, the Moravi-
an Wine Trails would have celebrated 20 years Uherské Hradiště, which connected them all.
of its existence - if it wasn‘t for the lockdown. Juraj Flamik recalls: “The years full of meetings
In this situation, it was remembered only by and persuasions began. Our best allies were
tourists who were unable to set out for them. enlightened mayors. On the contrary, we had
In 1996 and 1997, the architect Jiří Löw and troubles persuading the winemakers who did
the ecologist and conservationist Juraj Flamik not want any tourists either in the cellars or in
brought the idea to the „Partnerství“ (Partner- the vineyards. We usually heard from them that
ship) Foundation and described the first idea tourists would just steal grapes and draw atten-
of connecting vineyards, cellars and monu- tion of the tax authorities to winemakers. They
ments by a networks of trails. They won 10 ma- won‘t take the wine home on their bikes! ”
yors of wine-growing villages over the idea. Some mayors were also skeptical: “What
Between the years 2000-2002, they marked would tourists look for here? There is nothing
10 circuits of wine trails according to the then here.“
valid 10 wine-growing regions and the back- It took four or five years for the Foundation to
bone Moravian wine trail from Znojmo to process and publish maps, guides, inform about
387