The golden hundred wines of the jubilee edition of the Wine Salon 2025

Valtice - The beginning of January traditionally brings the top 100 wines of our highest and largest competition of the Wine Salon - the National Wine Competition. It is a representative showcase of the best wines of individual wine regions, varieties and styles of our winemakers for the current year, which can be acquainted with and tasted in the eponymous tasting exhibition in the historic cellar of the Valtice Chateau.

The road to the Wine Salon is long and not easy at all. After all, each gold medalist was successively subjected to three evaluations and the golden hundred came from a record 2825 wines entered at the beginning of the competition. From the sub-regional rounds, a still quite generous 1593 wines were entered into the first national round. The most stringent filter of professional tasters, but also of chemical analyses, for example, came later, when only 400 finalists had the opportunity to reach for the highest award.

"The Wine Salon is rightly described as an imaginary paradise for wine lovers because, thanks to its uncompromising system, it guarantees the top quality of the presented wines, but it also takes into account the uniqueness of the wine regions of the Czech Republic, our rich varietal composition and wine-making handwriting. Every visit to the tasting exhibition of the Valtice Chateau gives the opportunity to get a comprehensive picture of how and what wines are created in our country," said Petr Gondáš, manager of the Wine Salon from the National Wine Centre, which organizes the competition and also manages the tasting exhibition. "Keep an eye on your favourite winemakers to see if they were lucky this year and made it into the golden hundred of this year's collection. Not only in the Salon of Wines itself, but also in shops and wine shops, on winemakers' e-shops and websites, and in restaurants, these wines can be recognised by the gold Salon of Wines 2025 medal stuck on the wine bottles, and it's good that everyone can enjoy our top-rated wines in this way," he added.|

The wine tasting exhibition of the Wine Salon opens on 1 February 2025 and will welcome visitors again almost until Christmas.

The National Wine Center also provides award-winning wineries and winemakers with specially created graphics they can use to showcase this achievement on their social media or website.

The Wine Salon - National Wine Competition of the Czech Republic is the highest and largest wine competition in the Czech Republic. It is organized by the National Wine Centre with the support of the Wine Fund and the official guarantee of the Association of Winemakers of the Czech Republic. The patronage of the Wine Salon - National Wine Competition 2025 was taken over by the Governor of the South Moravian Region Mgr. Jan Grolich and Minister of Agriculture Mgr. Marek Výborný.

Winners of individual categories

Champion of the competition and winner of category A - White dry wines

• Welschriesling, late harvest, 2022, batch no. 2237 - Ing. Miroslav Volařík

Winner of category B - White wines semi-dry and semi-sweet

• FRESH Riesling, Moravian Land Wine, 2019, batch no. 22 - VINAŘSTVÍ POD OŘECHY s.r.o.

Winner of category C - Sweet wines

• Pálava, selection of bortytised, 2021, batch no. 2137 - Ing. Miroslav Volařík

Winner of category D - Rosé wines and clarets

• Tercie, cabinet wine, 2023, batch no. 1023 - VÍNO J.STÁVEK

Winner of category E - Dry red wines

• Pinot Noir, selection of grapes, batch no. 522 - Vinařství Svoboda

Winner of category G - Quality Sparkling Wines

• Riesling, quality sparkling wine, 2022, batch no.3006/23 - Vinařství Mikulica

The award for the best wine collection went to Vinařství Hanzel, s.r.o.

The collection of 100 wines with the gold medal of the Wine Salon 2025 includes 62 winemakers and wine companies. The largest representation is Hanzel Winery (5 wines) followed by Ing. Miroslav Volařík, Štěpán Maňák and DAVINUS (4 wines). Of the total of 22 varieties, the most represented are traditionally Riesling (18), Riesling Welsh (9) and for the first time ever, Pálava (8) is also among the three most common varieties, followed by Pinot Blanc (7) and Tramin Red (7). The most common red wine is Pinot Noir (6).

This year's 25th anniversary edition of the competition was held in a regular three-round format, where during the first phase tasters judge wines in the individual Moravian wine sub-regions (Znojemská, Mikulovská, Velkopavlovická, Slovácká) and in the Bohemia wine region. This is followed by two national rounds of evaluation, which will determine the composition of the Wine Salon for the following year, the Champion and the category winners.

The competition itself is followed from February by a year-long tasting exhibition of the best 100 wines in the historic cellar of the Valtice Chateau. Here it is possible to taste the best wines of the year through several types of tasting programmes, including 'free tasting', sommelier-led programmes and individual tasting from a presentation machine. This year's opening to the public is scheduled for 1 February.

In addition to the hundred best wines, awarded according to the statute with the gold medal of the Wine Salon of the Czech Republic 2025, the committee also awarded silver medals (for wines that advanced to the second round of evaluation and received a minimum of 84 points). The total number of medals awarded is limited to a maximum of 30% of the number of wines entered in the first round.