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Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora

A Kutná Hora family estate making biodynamic, estate-grown Czech wines, led by Pinot Noir and dry Riesling.

The producer

Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora was founded by Stanislav Rudolfský in 2002 and has been managed by his son Lukáš since 2005. More than 80 hectares of farm land include over 40 hectares of vineyards, plus sheep pastures, orchards and fields; because the cellar uses only estate-grown grapes, the wines begin within one mixed farm. The estate has held biodynamic certification since 2014 and is Demeter-certified.

Pinot Noir is the winery’s stated flagship, while Riesling shows the link between site and cellar particularly clearly. Riesling 2022 comes from the southern-facing U Všech svatých vineyard, where shallow soil lies over rocky gneiss; spontaneous fermentation and 18 months in a large oak cask bring tropical fruit, linden blossom, vanilla, honeycomb and rounded acidity. Elsewhere, the range moves through rose-and-lychee Gewürztraminer, buttery oak-aged Chardonnay, fresh Sauvignon pét-nat and forest-fruited, spicy Pinot Noir with tannin.

Known for

Biodynamic, estate-grown Czech wines from Kutná Hora, especially Pinot Noir and dry Riesling.

Notable facts

The story

A vineyard beneath St. Barbara’s Church

In 2011, Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora joined residents of Kutná Hora to restore the tiny terraced Pod Barborou vineyard beneath St. Barbara’s Church. The terrace had stood without vines for a century. The work returned a working vineyard to the slope below the church, above the city and the Vrchlice valley. A tasting stand was installed at the site, so visitors can taste among the vines while looking across Kutná Hora. The restoration is distinct from the estate’s larger vineyard holdings: Pod Barborou is a small terraced site with its own church-side setting and public tasting point.

From the atlas

Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora

At A Glance

Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora is a family winery in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, founded in 2002 by Stanislav Rudolfský and managed by his son Lukáš since 2005. More than 80 hectares of farm land—over 40 hectares of it vineyard—supply every grape in the cellar, so the dry Riesling, Pinot Noir and sparkling wines begin on the same estate as the sheep pastures, orchards and fields around them.

The Producer

This is a mixed farm that bottles only its own fruit. Since 2014, the estate has held biodynamic certification and is also listed by Demeter CS; Pinot Noir is its stated flagship, while Riesling provides the most detailed view of how a named vineyard becomes a bottle. Family management and estate-grown grapes keep the link direct: vineyard decisions, harvest fruit and the wine under the Kutná Hora name belong to one operation.

Place

Kutná Hora is the fixed point on every bottle, rather than a borrowed regional name. The winery’s Riesling 2022 is labelled Czech Land Wine and comes from its U Všech svatých vineyard in Kutná Hora. That connection matters in the glass because the wine’s dry, rounded profile is tied to a specific southern-facing site, spontaneous fermentation and long maturation in large oak—not simply to the Riesling grape on its own.

Soil And Site

U Všech svatých covers 20 hectares on a dry southern slope. In places, the soil is only 10 centimetres deep before rocky gneiss, and Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Riesling are the principal plantings. Five hectares were planted in the 1970s and are known as the Old Vines. For Riesling, this is a notably stony, exposed setting behind the tropical fruit, linden blossom and citrus notes described for the estate’s 2022 wine.

Story

Stanislav Rudolfský started the winery in 2002, and Lukáš Rudolfský took over its management three years later. The work expanded beyond a conventional vine holding: sheep pasture, orchards and fields sit alongside the vineyards, while the cellar uses only estate fruit. The result is a range with several grapes and styles, from pét-nat Sauvignon Blanc to Pinot Noir Reserve, but with no need to buy in grapes to fill gaps between harvest and bottle.

Vineyards And Cellar

Biodynamic work here is physical rather than decorative. The estate uses herbal extracts in place of pesticides and maintains trees, shrubs, green-manure plots, rotting wood and stone piles around the vines; Demeter CS also records work organised around lunar phases. Those choices sit beside hand harvesting, so fruit arrives in the cellar as picked rather than mechanically stripped from the vine.

Fermentation begins spontaneously, using yeasts brought in from the vineyard. Most wines also undergo spontaneous malolactic fermentation, a process the estate links to natural stability and lower sulfur dioxide use. Riesling 2022 shows the cellar’s longer route: after fermentation, it spent 18 months in a 3,000-litre oak cask, large enough to support texture and vanilla notes without turning the wine into an oak-dominated white.

Wines

The range moves through white, red and sparkling forms without treating one grape as the whole story. Riesling Premium 2022 is mineral and citrus-fruited; Gewürztraminer 2022 heads toward rose, lychee and spice. Chardonnay Barrique 2021 is the fuller white, with oak, butter, vanilla and tropical fruit shaping a broader body.

Sparkling wine arrives in two different forms. Wine PUNK Sauvignon PET-NAT 2023 is a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc with fruit and fresh acidity, while Cuvée Kuks comes from a restored terraced plot and is made by traditional bottle fermentation. Pinot Noir Reserve 2020 brings forest fruit, spice and tannin, while Cuvée Terroir 2021 combines several varieties from one vineyard. Together, the bottles offer aromatic whites, oak-aged weight, bubbles and red-grape grip from one estate.

In The Glass

Start with the white wines’ perfume: Riesling carries citrus, ripe pineapple, lychee and linden blossom; Gewürztraminer adds rose and spice. On the palate, the Riesling is dry but opulent in fruit, with honeycomb notes and rounded acidity after its long stay in large oak. Chardonnay shifts the emphasis toward fuller body, butter and vanilla, while the Sauvignon pét-nat puts fresh acidity and lively fruit ahead of oak.

The red side is firmer. Pinot Noir Reserve moves from forest fruit and spice into tannin, giving the finish a dry, lightly grippy shape. Across the range, acidity, oak and tannin are not used as decoration: they separate bright sparkling Sauvignon from broad Chardonnay, and fragrant white wines from the more savoury pull of Pinot Noir.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose Riesling 2022. It is a dry, 12% Czech Land Wine from U Všech svatých, made from organically and Demeter-certified fruit, fermented spontaneously and matured for 18 months in a 3,000-litre oak cask. The aroma combines tropical fruit, lychee, ripe pineapple, linden blossom and vanilla; the palate is fruity and rounded, with honeycomb and a settled line of acidity. It brings the southern slope, old-vine parcel, biodynamic farming and cellar method into one unusually well-documented bottle.

Anecdote

In 2011, Vinné sklepy Kutná Hora and residents of Kutná Hora restored the tiny terraced Pod Barborou vineyard beneath St. Barbara’s Church. The site had been dormant for a century. The work returned vines to the terrace below the church and created a tasting stand above the city and the Vrchlice valley. It remains a vineyard rather than a reconstructed museum piece: visitors can stand among the vines, look over Kutná Hora and taste wine at the site. The supplied record does not name the grapes planted there or a particular bottling from its fruit.

Final Word

This is a useful estate to approach through contrast: dry Riesling from shallow gneiss soil and long oak ageing, then Pinot Noir with forest fruit, spice and tannin. Both bottles keep the connection to Kutná Hora visible.

Sources

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