Slovak Wine Harvest Events in September
Since it is now the autumn season, I was recently thinking about harvesting time in Slovakia. Why was I thinking about the harvest in Slovakia when I have never even considered harvests in the US? Maybe it’s because land, agriculture, and the cycles of nature are so much a part of life in modern-day Slovakia.
One of the biggest celebrations of the harvest, specifically the harvesting of wine, is called vinobranie. The vinobranie is a festival that usually happens in the second or third week in September, and is celebrated by many towns and villages. The wine tradition in western Slovakia goes back as far as the 12th century when German vintners came, bringing their skills in wine growing and harvesting to the Small Carpathian Mountain region.
The biggest vinobranie takes place in Pezinok and Modra, in western Slovakia. This is one festival and it alternates between these two towns every year. This year the festival happens in Pezinok on September 21 – 23. At the vinobranie there are rides for the kids and vendors selling a lot of cheap goods and clothes, but there are also great displays and demonstrations of traditional Slovak handcrafts, plenty of food, and, of course, performances of folk dance and music.
I recently found a list of wine-related events in Slovakia for the rest of this year in 2007. Below are the events for September:
- Sept 14 – 16 Vinobranie Rača – Rača is a district in Bratislava but it used to be its own village several years ago.
- Sept 21 – 23 Malokarpatské Vinobranie 2007 Pezinok – The Small Carpathian Wine-Harvest Festival of Pezinok. This is the biggest and the best.
- Sept 21 – 23 Vinobranie v Mestskej vinotéke ochutnávka – Mest. vinotéka, Radničné nám. 9, Pezinok – Wine tasting at the town winery located at Radničné nám. 9 in Pezinok
- Sept 28 – 30 Burčiak v keramike v Modre – “Burčiak” is “new wine”, wine that is not finished fermenting. This is a new wine and ceramic festival in the town of Modra.
- Sept 28 Bez hrozna niet vína – Grape and wine tasting in the wine cellar in the town of Modra.
