At A Glance
- **Location:** Moravský Žižkov, Slovácká sub-region, southern Moravia, Czech Republic
- **Grape:** Frankovka (Blaufränkisch)
- **Certification:** Fully organic
- **Cellar approach:** Low-intervention: spontaneous or vineyard-selected yeast, minimal filtration, no fining, restricted sulfites
- **Production:** 45,000 to 60,000 bottles per year
- **Vineyards:** 10 to 11 hectares, estate-owned
- **Key bottles:** Bílá Frankovka, Frankovka VOC, Frankovka Reserva VH
The Producer
Víno J. Stávek makes one grape in three formats, and the most surprising of them is white. Jan Stávek is the fourth generation of his family to make wine in Moravský Žižkov, a village in the Slovácká wine sub-region of southern Moravia, and his most distinctive bottle is a blanc de noirs pressed from Frankovka, a grape almost every other Czech producer vinifies red. The family has been making wine here since 1898. The winery runs ten to eleven hectares of estate vines under full organic certification, and the cellar works with spontaneous or vineyard-selected yeast, minimal filtration, no fining agents, and controlled sulfite use. Oenologist Dominik Eliáš works alongside Stávek on production.
Frankovka is also known as Blaufränkisch in Austria and Germany, where it is the primary red variety of Burgenland. In Moravia it occupies a similar position: a grape of dark fruit, firm acidity, and enough tannin to carry oak or reward ageing. At Stávek the grape runs from a pale, whole-pressed white through a VOC-labelled red to a 23-month Reserva, and each format shows a different face of the same vine.
Place
Southern Moravia produces the large majority of Czech wine, and the Slovácká sub-region sits in its southeastern corner, close to the Slovak border. The landscape is flat to gently rolling, with continental temperatures: warm summers that ripen Frankovka's thick skin fully, and cold winters that reset the vine. The Slovácká sub-region is better known for white varieties in some villages, but the dark, iron-bearing loam soils of Moravský Žižkov suit Frankovka's need for warmth and drainage.
The VOC designation, Vinařská oblast Česká, is a Czech appellation quality marker tied to a defined production area and minimum standards. A Frankovka carrying the VOC label is a declared address wine, not a table or regional blend.
Soil And Site
The estate parcels sit on the loam and clay soils typical of the Slovácká lowlands, with enough mineral content to support Frankovka's tannic frame without forcing early picking. Warm, sheltered growing conditions allow the grape to reach full phenolic maturity before harvest. The organic certification rules out synthetic inputs across the whole estate, and the practice of using yeast strains selected from the vineyard itself ties fermentation biology directly back to the soil.
Story
The winery dates to 1898, when the family first made wine in Moravský Žižkov. Four generations carried it through the disruptions of two world wars, the communist collectivisation of Czech agriculture in the 1950s, and the restitution period after 1989. Jan Stávek's decision to certify the whole estate organically, and to formalise a low-intervention cellar philosophy across every cuvée, is the most recent act of repositioning. It moved the winery away from the yield-driven cooperative model that defined Moravian production through the second half of the twentieth century and toward a quality-focused, estate-focused approach.
Bílá Frankovka is a blanc de noirs white made from Frankovka.
Vineyards And Cellar
All fruit comes from the estate's own parcels. Organic farming means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers. Cover crops and minimal soil disturbance are standard practice. Canopy management is aimed at even ripening and reduced disease pressure without chemical intervention.
In the cellar, Bílá Frankovka is whole-bunch pressed from Frankovka grapes without skin contact: the juice runs pale and the wine carries no red-grape phenolics or tannin, only the grape's acidity and aromatic oils. The VOC red ferments with spontaneous or vineyard-selected yeast, depending on the vintage. The Reserva goes into French oak for 23 months, long enough for the dark fruit to absorb wood character without the oak dominating. No fining agents are used at any level. Filtration is minimal to absent. Sulfite additions are kept low.
Wines
The range centres on four expressions of Frankovka, each with a distinct cellar route and glass profile.
Bílá Frankovka is a blanc de noirs: whole-bunch pressed from the red grape, vinified without skin contact, and bottled as a white wine. It is pale in colour, with peach, white currant, and gooseberry on the nose, white flowers, a faint spice note, and a fresh, mouth-watering acidity through the mid-palate. The finish is longer and spicier than the aromatic profile suggests. A Kabinet-level version, Bílá Frankovka Kabinet, is also made, with more pronounced white currant and floral lift.
Frankovka VOC is the mid-level red, labelled under the Czech appellation quality designation. The wine is medium-full in body, with dark ruby colour, aromas of cherry and dark berry, a spice component, and ripe tannin with juicy acidity underneath. It is a direct, fruit-driven red.
Frankovka Reserva VH is the top red. After 23 months in French oak, the dark fruit aromatics take on spice and wood integration: complex on the nose, with more weight and density than the VOC, and a longer, tighter finish.
Rosé Tercie blends Frankovka with Merlot into a rosé, broadening the range without stepping outside the Frankovka core.
In The Glass
The Bílá Frankovka opens with peach and gooseberry, a lift of white flowers, and a faint spice that is unusual for a white wine. On the palate the acidity arrives early and drives the wine forward: this is not a soft, textured white but a nervy, low-phenolic one. The fruit is fresh and direct. The finish extends longer than the light colour would suggest, and it closes on spice rather than sweetness.
The Frankovka VOC pours dark ruby. The nose is ripe: cherry, blackberry, a hit of pepper. On the palate the body is medium-full, with tannin that is present but not hard, and an acidity that keeps the fruit from reading as heavy. The spice note carries through from the nose to the finish.
The Frankovka Reserva VH is denser on the nose, with dark plum and blackcurrant deepened by 23 months of French oak. Spice and wood are present but absorbed. The palate has more weight than the VOC, the tannins are more developed, and the finish stays long.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Bílá Frankovka. It is a white wine made from a red grape: the Frankovka is whole-bunch pressed immediately after harvest, the skins are removed before fermentation, and the wine that results carries no red-grape colour, tannin, or phenolic weight. What remains is the grape's acidity, its aromatic oils, and a spice character that does not appear in any comparable Czech white. The nose is peach, white currant, and gooseberry; the palate is fresh and precise, driven by bright acidity; the finish is spicy and longer than the opening suggests. No other Czech producer has built their range around this format. One bottle explains what makes this winery different from every neighbour working the same grape.
Anecdote
In the 1920s, an ancestor named František Kopřiva was already a name in Moravský Žižkov: winemaker, innkeeper, and, by the accounts that reached the family, someone whose bottles travelled. His wines were loaded and sent not only to Prague townhouses but also to Vienna, then still a city that expected to be supplied from the best of Central Europe. A small producer in a southern Moravian village, two generations before Jan Stávek was born, was placing bottles in the former Austro-Hungarian capital during the interwar years. The winery's founding date is 1898. The trade route to Vienna is the older story.
Final Word
Víno J. Stávek is not a large or prominent Czech winery, but it occupies a specific position: four generations in one village, organic across the whole estate, and a blanc de noirs white from a red grape that no neighbouring producer has thought to make their signature bottle. The Bílá Frankovka is the clearest proof of that. The Reserva shows the cellar's capacity for patience. Together they give a buyer more than one reason to come back.