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CZECH REPUBLIC
he established laws and regulations such as the planting
of the hills surrounding Prague, tax exemptions for wine-
growers, and a ban on wine imports. In the following cen-
turies, dozens of local and state regulations were added,
shaping the different styles and wine-growing regions.
Unfortunately, from the 19th century onwards, the gra-
dual abandonment of rural life and the shift in consump-
tion habits towards beer and other spirits displaced wine.
As a result, vineyards survived only in those villages
where the high quality of the grapes justified the care
and labour required. Until the arrival of phylloxera, it was
common to name wines after the village they came from,
since vineyards were planted with a wide assortment of
varieties adapted to the land. After the Révokaz (phy-
lloxera), most vineyards were replanted with single va-
rieties, losing part of their identity and genetic heritage.
In 1930, the Moravian region hit rock bottom with only
3,870 hectares of planted vineyard, and after the out-
break of the Second World War —from which abandoned
bunkers still remain, guarding the vines— its growth and
development came to a halt. However, in the 1960s, the
Austrian oenologist Lenze Moser modernised vineyard
work and laid the foundations for the first cooperatives
and state-run farms.
With the entry of the Czech Republic into the European
Union in 2004, its wine law was harmonised with Euro-
pean legislation, giving rise to the current Zákon o vino-
hradnictví a vinařství (Viticulture and Winemaking Act).
Bunker; and, below, old barrels in a vineyard
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