Viticulture in The Czech Republic: Some Spatio-Temporal Trends

From a global perspective, the growing of grapevines in the Czech Republic is of peripheral importance. For a group of grape-growing villages in southern Moravia, however, the making of wine is bound up with local history, traditions and cultural life, and contributes significantly to the local economy. This paper describes the current status of viticulture in Bohemia and Moravia, addressing changes in the number and structure of wine producers and pointing out some qualitative changes that the business is undergoing. Changing consumer tastes have brought a demand for quality wines of local origin, which cannot be met without high quality care of vineyards throughout the lifetime of the vines. Special attention is given to two alternative ways of tending vineyards - the development of integrated production, and organic viticulture - that are developing rapidly in the Czech Republic even when compared to Austria and Germany