Winery Baloun
He is heard, seen and has know-how. He is not bound neither social nor wine growers conventions. He started his own business under such difficult conditions that nobody could be envious of him and most people would have refused to begin any kind of business then. He says that what you learn in socialism it will come in handy in capitalism. He has both winegrowing and business in blood and that is no wonder. His father Antonín, born in 1936 is his competitor. He also has wine business and is successful. However, his son got ahead of him and that is the way life should go.
Radomil Baloun was born on 9 September 1959 in Valtice. He attended the primary school in Velké Bílovice and studied the secondary school with agriculture-technical specialization in Mikulov in 1974 – 1978. After his service in army, also at The Guard of Prague Castle, he began to work as a technician at The State Farm of Velké Pavlovice. In 1987 the caravan changed its direction as we say which means the handicapped ones got to the top and he became a head manager even without the party affiliation. Altough he likes democracy he doesn´t usually let it go through his company gate since he thinks that too much democracy could make more harm.
He founded his dynamically expanding company in 1991 and two years later he became the owner of the farms in Velké Pavlovice (the former wine cellar of The State Farm) and in Hustopeče (the former Winery). Since 1993 he has been a member of the prestige association of Bohemian and Moravian Winaries. As it is written in Bible many poor years followed. And said by a classicist what does not break you it gives you power and lesson. Now he has his own winary equipped by modern technologies and beautiful historical wine cellars full of the barrique barrels with the maturing wine which is regularly awarded at the exhibitions either here or in abroad. He says one life is not enough to build up the company of his perfect ideas.
Radomil Baloun comes from the vinter family in Velké Bílovice whose ancestors were winemakers for many generations and the one we should mention is his grandpa Cyril Kratochvíl (1892 - 1972). Radek when he was a small boy he used to go with him to the wineyard and wine cellar. At those days he smelt wine for the first time and slept under the grapevine tree all the afternoon, covered with his grandpa's coat.
His father Antonín, born in 1936, who was a progressive vinter famous for his wine among many artists already in the times of socialism, also had great influence on his relation to wine making. He still produces and sells wine. We will probably tell nothing new when we say that the wine produced by Radek in about 1984 was also served at the celebration of Milan Chladil and later Karel Gotts fiftieth birthdays. He made use of his experiences gained by years when he founded his own wine-producing company in the rooms of the former wine cellars of State Farm in Velké Pavlovice. During the first year in business he produced cca 850 thousand bottles of fizzy wine called Casius. Next year he rented a few wine cellars of the surrounded cooperatives and he processed their harvest of the grapes for his own business. Since 1992 the company almost stopped production of fizzy wine and they came to production of the quiet bottled wines that is the best from the wine makers point of view.
In 1993 the firm owned the mentioned wine cellars in Velké Pavlovice and also the branch company in Hustopeče u Brna, the former Wine Concerns Velké Pavlovice, state enterprise. The capacity of both plants is more than one million liters whereas the branch in Hustopeče works as a processing operation plant with capacity of about 850 thousand litres of wine. There are also reconstructed archive wine cellars where about 150 thousand bottles of wine are maturing. The headquarter of Vinářství Radomil Baloun is placed in Velké Pavlovice. The wine cellar and the buildings are dated to 1750 and were built as the lords´court of Marie Terezie that her husband the count Esterházi had bought for her. The wine cellar where mostly red wine lie in big barrels has capacity of 150 thousand litres and it was used as so-called the Tenth wine cellar at that time which means that liege people had to give away the tenth part of their wine production to the authorities.
In 1997 the company began to produce the wines with controlled fermentation which means that all the processes in wine production are controlled by heat treatment start from the grapes harvest to wine bottling. In further years the wine cellars and buildings were reconstructed and the modern equipment was installed. This process will take a few more years since the company owner collects his inspiration and architectural experience abroad and it requires high cost investments in the reconstruction.
Winery Baloun grow 30 hectares of the long-term rented vineyards in the Protected Landscape Area of Pálava. Then 30 hectares of the young vineyards of white grapes Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Traminer and Pinot grey were planted in Pálava in 2003 - 2004. In 2004 30 hectares of the young red grapes vineyards with the virgin crops that is going to be harvested in 2005 - 2007 were rented in Velké Pavlovice.
The company annually presents their wines at the prestige wine exhibitions in The Czech Republic and abroad. Among the great national fairs there are Valtice Wine Fairs, Grand Prix Vinex, Vinum Juvenale, Wine Exhibition in Chateau Velké Březno, Wine and Spirits Prague, Saloon of Wine of The Czech Republic. There are some foreign exhibitions like Muvina Prešov, Vinoforum - held in the different parts of Europe, Weinparade Poysdorf in Austria, Vinalies International in Paris etc. where our red, white or pink wines were granted medals. These awards are important mainly for our potential customers who meet our wines for the first time. The gold medal for Sauvignon 2003 from International Wine Fair Vinalies Internationales in Paris 2004 is the greatest award we have granted. Having success at the wine exhibitions does not mean everything for good business however it is a good start when we speak to our customers. The most important thing is to attract a client which means for the owner of the company to build up the clientś dependence on the taste of our wines as their tastes are captivating, without sharp acids, have different very gentle manuscript rather French and the longer we drink them the better they taste. Each wine of the certain year of vintage is selected and it is or it is not enlisted in TOP line according to the results. The awards granted do not have any effect on their enlisting. So it happened that almost all wines of 2001 were placed for cuveé of wine of
the basic line in spite of their higher production costs. We never mark the wines of the basic line with neither attribute nor awards although they were granted or were with attributes. These wines can compete the wines that are commonly sold in The Czech Republic. The important is they do not meet the requests of the company owner due to the weak year of vintage. The company should have enough wines of other years of vintage so as they can afford to dismiss the weak ones from the TOP line. The owner keeps his high demands on TOP wines and improves the company prestige.
In 2004 we opened our branch company in Prague-Nusle, 19 Svatoslav Street in order to get closer to the customers. It is not a typical wine shop. The aim activity of this branch office is to introduce our company and our wines to the potential customers and have enough time for them. The owner bet the taste of our wines. If it was not sufficiently captivating the client would not fall in them and then this kind of business would be useless. Our experience tells us that sooner or later the client becomes addicted to their taste. It is all united with the gastronomic progress of the customer. The important role plays here health of wine as higher content of sulphur in wine causes headache and higher content of acids causes heartburn. We do not have to go into extremes it is enough when we just do not enjoy the wine and so we lose all love for it and stop drinking it. And it is all about our bad choice. Only few people realize that wine is a gastronomic product like tasty meal. We want to know who prepared it and then we always come back to that source. It is usually little more expensive. We do not visit the restaurants where they do not cook well. It works the same in wines. It is fault to think that attributive wine have to be more tasty comparing to qualitative wine without being informed who is the producer. Attribute is only the reached sugar level in grapes that it is important but much more important is the ability of a winemaker to be a good cook. Then the qualitative Ryzlink vlašský made by a good winemaker can taste better than Sauvignon made by a bad winemaker.