
WINERY
We are a small, progressive winery whose goal and mission is to restore the beauty and charm of Černý kopec in Prague's Troja. We are reviving the cultivation of vines where they had a tradition since the reign of Charles IV and we offer wine lovers the opportunity to taste our "boutique" production, mainly the Rhine Riesling variety.
As was found in the Prague archives: According to Charles IV's decree on the establishment of vineyards, all suitable southern slopes within 3 miles of Prague were required to be planted with vines, to which the Jabloňka vineyard undoubtedly belonged.

HISTORY
The current owners of the chateau and winery Mr and Mrs Vydra, had been looking for a unique place to live for a long time, until around 2007 they discovered the dilapidated Jabloňka chateau, which was for sale, but after several years of being inhabited by squatters and the homeless, it was in a truly deplorable state. The land was overgrown, but the view suggested that it would one day be a truly unique place not only for living. The reconstruction of the chateau was difficult and financially demanding, moreover under the supervision of conservationists, but finally, in the spring of 2011, they moved into the reconstructed chateau and then began cleaning the garden and the surrounding area, which was similarly neglected. To the west of the house, while cleaning overgrown trees, they came across stone terraces that had certainly served as vineyards in the past, and they decided to try to strengthen them and plant them with vines. Their advisor Vilém Kraus from Mělník recommended Riesling and Traminer seedlings, and so in 2013-2014 they began planting the first vines.

They produced a very decent wine from the virgin harvest in 2017, which gave them the desire and vision to build a family boutique winery that could be an icon of Prague viticulture. Over the next 10 years, they gradually cleared other areas around the chateau, repaired, strengthened and added walls so that more vines could be planted, and built a winery building with complete modern technology to produce the highest quality white wine. When revitalizing the vineyard, they also paid attention to sustainability in the form of using recycled materials such as marl from demolished buildings, used railway sleepers for stairs, or building a photovoltaic power plant for summer operation of the cellar's cooling and air conditioning.

PRODUCTION
By producing a small volume of wine, the owners strive to ensure high quality and gentle processing of grapes in combination with the use of modern technologies and photovoltaic energy.
The grapes are combed and picked exclusively by hand and then processed by gentle pressing in a pneumatic press.
After pressing and sedimentation, the must is gently settled and fermented with a pure culture of varietal yeast. Controlled fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks at a temperature of 12 °C for approximately two weeks. After the first racking, the young wine rests on fine lees for half a year, followed by the processes of clarification, filtration and bottling.

CHATEAU JABLONKA
The classicist two-story castle Jabloňka dates from the end of the 18th century and towers over Prague's Troja district. The origins of the building's history are unclear, the building is located on an alleged 15th-century coin find and is believed to have housed a wine press. It acquired its current form at the end of the First World War, when Jabloňka was owned by Governor Šafránek.
The building has a rectangular floor plan, situated on a slope, so that the main facade is storey, the rear facade is ground floor. The hipped roof is equipped with a wooden, metal-covered turret. There was a room with a beamed ceiling on the ground floor, and a chapel with a flat ceiling on the first floor. The cellar, located outside the building, is vaulted with a stone barrel vault. Since its inception, the building was called only "Zámeček", it was only during the 1970s that the name "Jablůňka" was adopted, then "Jabloňka".

FIBONACCI
The great pride of the Jabloňka winery is also the construction of the Fibonacci tasting pavilion in collaboration with Portuguese architect Marco Maio and Radek Krčil, owner of the Manuall studio. This building won the BIG SEE Architecture Grand Prix Award 2023 architectural competition, and now it also boasts one of the prizes in the Czech Architecture Award 2023 competition for “elevating an elementary building element to art”! The pavilion is used primarily for guided tastings of winery visitors, for excursions of customers and wine buyers, and also for private gatherings with friends. The walk through the vineyard to the distant spiral always takes you away from everyday duties and creates a relaxing atmosphere. In the Fibonacci space, a person is separated from the city by a stone wall and can therefore focus only on fellow wine tasters, a glass of wine, and the surrounding stone walls with a beautiful vineyard…

TERROIR
The slope of Černý kopec, on which the Jabloňka winery is located, is oriented south above the Vltava River in the northeastern part of Prague.
The southeastern surroundings of the Jabloňka chateau, approximately 1.25 ha, which is currently not used for planting vines, were declared a natural monument in 1068. The area is protected due to the existence of a rock massif formed by slates and quartzites originating from the Ordovician period. It is also an important locality for the occurrence of rare birds, such as the common warbler and the black-headed warbler, and there is also thermophilic vegetation, such as the German oman or the lily bulb.
The very existence of the Jabloňka natural monument is proof of the uniqueness of the local terroir.
The vineyard's subsoil consists of original Skałek quartzite, sandy
and clay deposits, and last but not least, black and gray slate, which provides a strong foundation for the flavor of the local wine.
The altitude of the vineyard is approximately 200-250 m above sea level, the average annual air temperature (from the last 10 years) is approximately 12⁰C. Precipitation during the growing season is below average, which is why the winery has built drip irrigation from its own well sources, which they use mainly for watering young, newly planted bushes. The local warm microclimate and almost constant air flow help fight mold and spring frosts.

VINEYARD
The winery now covers an area of approximately 1 ha and has 7,500 vines planted, with a maximum capacity of approximately 10,000 vines. The slope below the chateau is very steep, which is why the work in the vineyard is specific, almost without mechanization, all manual work from hoeing, through pruning, spraying, mowing to harvesting. They grow 3 varieties of white wine here – Riesling, Traminer červený, and Riesling červený. From next year, the vineyard will be included in a new vineyard route called “Jabloňka” and will therefore be able to produce quality wines with an appellation. The “head” line is mainly used here, which is best suited to the demanding, steep terrain; on flatter areas at the top of the black hill, a wire Rhine-Hessen line is built.

PEOPLE IN WINERY
Mark Vydra, the owner, is a developer by profession and at heart, and he is filled with the desire to enhance real estate, build beautiful things that will remain here long after we are gone. He is a visionary who is behind the very idea of establishing a vineyard.
Co-owner and wife, Lenka Vydra Šmídová, a former three-time Olympian and Olympic medalist, now takes care of the winery's management, marketing and sales. The winery now has 3 seasonal employees: The oenologist is František Běhunek, who has been taking care of the vineyard completely from grape to bottle since 2020, having started here as a consultant a few years earlier. The winery's sommelier is Jiří Beer, who, through the most renowned restaurants and wine bars in Prague and London, made it to the Prague winery Jabloňka, where he is now in charge of tasting events, sales and marketing. In the season, he is also happy to help in the vineyard.