Moravia (Bzenec part 2)

So I'm finally getting around to posting on the highlight of our trip to Bzenec: a feast and wine tasting in the family cellar. My uncle Tomas says the cellar is about 200 years old and is still only used by Otepkas and cousins of Otepkas (you can't let something like that slip out of the family). Tomas' father and grandfather (and uncles, etc) used the cellar for their wine-making exploits back in the day and I've got pictures of my grandpa Rudy down there with his cousins enjoying some wonderful Otepka-made wine once upon a time. Am also pretty sure that they made their way down to the cellar a few times during WWII as it's essentially a bomb shelter.

The cellar is walking distance from the center of Bzenec and Tomas' house and is located under an old Jewish cemetery. Mike and I had heard a great deal about it from brothers Cris and Jim who have both been to cellar parties with the family. To say we were excited to get to the cellar was an understatement. Here are a few shots of the place before I get into how the evening progressed.

Entrance. I wasn't able to get a good shot
of the cemetery on the roof b/c of night and broken camera flash.

Uncle Petr just inside the entrance and ready to turn to his right
and descend into the rest of the cellar.

Petr heading down.

Petr again looking back up at me. All kinds of wine-making equipment
lines either side of the tunnel.

A bit further into the cellar where we sat and ate and drank and sang
all night. Easily one of the best nights of my life. Mike concurs.

Mike and Petr in the deepest room of the cellar, appraising Tomas'
many different carboys of wines.

After walking through the cellar a few times in utter shock at how cool it was that this was an Otepka Wine Cellar, we sat down at the table in the "middle room" as I'll call it and began our wine tasting. Tomas went into the back room with his wine thief (glass pipette) and sucked his homemade wine out of individual carboys to bring back into us for tastings. I don't know how many different types of wine he has back there, but I would guess at dozens.

Tomas in his element.

No, these are not movie props -- this is Otepka Cellar Wine.

Another of Tomas' blends. Wonderful stuff. 

Tomas working the wine thief to steal a bit more love for all
the rest of us thirsty Otepkas.

Here's Johnny! (Mike thought this pic looked a little Nicholson-esque)

Tomas pouring out some Rose. Mike in foreground, Jirka in back.

So after we got settled down with a bit of wine, the food started showing up as did many more Otepka's. It turned into a wonderful evening of eating and drinking and laughing with family, many of whom we had only met just minutes before. It was truly an evening that neither Mike nor myself will ever forget. And the food, well it was just my style: fried meats. Can I get a hell yeah? Hell yeah.

Fried pork bits. Death sentence, but a good way to die.

Fried pork and chicken cutlets. Yes, please.

After we stuffed ourselves on the fried meats and cheeses and salamis, we did another wine flight (and another I think). By the end of the night, we are all very happy and toasty, but not too far gone...it was just right. Here are some more shots of the fam in the cellar...

The next generation of Otepka winemakers?

Me and Danes.

Petr and his lovely and very cool daughter Barbora.

Me and Mike thoroughly wined.

Zdena and her daughter Gabriela

The Otepka Boys.

Our Grandpa Rudy with his cousin Rudy (Gariela's grandfather) in the very same wine cellar
some 20 or 30 years ago.

After the festivities in the cellar, everyone went home and Mike and I to our hotel room at Hotel Junior, but before we called it a night, Mike and I decided to wander through town a bit. 

Cemetery above neighboring wine cellar.  Thanks for the memories family!

Well that about ends our epic CZ Rep travels. It was an amazing experience and one that I hope to duplicate with the rest of the Otepka brothers and our dad someday. To my family over there, thank you for your warm welcome and generosity during our stay. I would like to return the favor anytime -- either in Luxembourg or the U.S.A.

If I have the energy, I'll blog about our last day/night in Prague, but it would be somewhat anticlimactic.

Moravia (Bzenec part 1)

After a few days in Zlin, we headed down to Bzenec (pronounced bzenets) to visit with some other Otepkas and have a celebration in the family wine celler. Around noon on Friday, Jirka, Mirka, Petr, Mike and myself made the hour-long drive from Zlin to Bzenec. Upon arriving in Bzenec we enjoyed some coffee, snacks and of course slivovitz at Danes and Dana's home and we were joined by Tomas (Dana's brother) who lives across the street with his wife and twin two year old kids.

The Otepka family in Bzenec, just like our family in Zlin welcomed us with open arms and we got off to a great start. And it didn't hurt that Danes had Bruce Springsteen playing when we walked in. After about an hour or so, all of us went for a walk through town and took in some Otepka family history.

First, Bzenec is where the American Otepkas trace our most recent Czech history back to. In Bzenec, our great-great grandfather Tomas Otepka had two sons, our great grandfather Ferdinand and his brother Rudy. The two brothers eventually married two sisters, Johana and Marie.

Sometime around 1915 Ferdinand, who was a blacksmith specializing in forging wheels for carts, moved with his wife Johana to the U.S.A. and settled in Chicago. They had two sons, Otto (link #2) and our grandfather, Rudy. By the way, check out the links on Otto -- very cool gov't conspiracy story.

So who are these people we stayed with in the CZ? I'm glad you asked... Ferdinand's brother, Rudy who remained in Bzenec with his wife Marie had three sons, Stanislav, Vladimir and Jiri. These three brothers were my grandfather's cousins. Vladimir was the father of the modern Zlin crew, Jirka and Petr, and Jiri was the father of the modern Bzenec Otepkas, Tomas and Dana. There you have it.

So we wandered through town and took a few pics. Here are a few...

Our great grandfather Ferdinand lived in the house that until a
a few years ago was behind this fence.

Mike in front of the building where Ferdinand Otepka used to
work as a blacksmith.

Close-up of the address of blacksmith shop.

After we saw where Ferdinand used to live and work, our relatives took us around the rest of the town and showed us some really cool stuff. First, we looked directly across town at the remains of the baroque chapel St. Florian that still gazes down on Bzenec. Originally built as a castle in the 12th century, by the 13th century it was the royal residence and later the margrave's government of South Moravia. In 1423 it was destroyed by the Hussites and left to waste until 1703 when the chapel was built. Unfortunately, WWII came along and blew it to most of it to shite.

St. Florian Chapel ruins overlooking Bzenec.

Then we headed over to the Bzenecky Zamek (Bzenec Castle) and walked around the grounds. A few final pictures...

"This? This is our supermarket. Oh that! That's our castle."

This is a 900 year old lime tree in the back courtyard of the Bzenec Castle. 

Moravia (Zlin)

 So after a few days in Prague, Mike and I made our way east by bus to the region of the CZ known as Moravia to stay with family in Zlin and also in Bzenec. We did a good amount of eating and drinking while in Prague, but little did we know that we had not yet even begun to defile ourselves.

After a surprisingly nice four-hour bus ride to Zlin, uncle Jirka and his wife Mirka picked us up and took us back to their home. Both Cris and Jim [brothers] had already been to both Zlin and Bzenec, so Jirka had some idea of what he was getting into when he offered to put us up for a few days. 

No more than 5 minutes after we walked in their front door the slivovitz began to flow. Literally, I don't think we even had our coats off yet. THAT IS MY KIND OF WELCOME. For those of you not in the know and too lazy to click on the previous link, slivovitz is 100+ proof plum brandy. I got my first taste of it about 10 years ago when Cris brought some back from his trip to CZ and then again when Jim did the same thing a few years after that. It's not for the faint of heart. I'm pretty sure it will remove tooth enamel and engine sludge. To steal a line from my buddy Dirck, it is the nectar of the gods. In all seriousness, I'd do shots of slivo over just about any other liquor -- much better than downing room temp Jack Daniels, for sure. 

So after getting all warm and toasty from the slivo, we sat down for dinner which was the first of several amazing homemade dishes by Mirka and  babichka Rose (Grandmother Rose). It was some kind of beef stew and we definitely didn't stop at one bowl. We paired everything with some Pilsner Urquell tallboys and more slivo and the first night got off to a really good start. After dinner, we headed down the street for a couple more local brews with Jirka and tried some really good unfiltered wheat beer. 

Homemade slivovich (chilled) - czech moonshine

I don't know what it's called, but we ate the sh*t out of it.

Our amazing hosts in Zlin. Mirka and Jirka.
Thank you both for everything!!!

The next morning, we got out and really saw the sights in both Zlin and the surrounding countryside. Jirka's brother Petr joined us for the adventure and we had a blast. First stop, the Jelinek Distillery, of course. Jelinek makes probably the most well-known slivovitz and we were touring through their facility before 11am. Not too bad. Amazing place and got some great pics. The tour ended and we had our first slivovitz of the day before noon. Normal. 

Some of the distilling hardware at Jelinek distillery.

Jelinek recently bought Gold Cock (seriously) Whiskey.
This is about 500 barrels of Gold Cock.

Otepkas! Matt, Jirka, Petr, Mike.

During the Jelinek tour. 

Want to buy a nice bottle of a Jelinek spirit, but don't trust
yourself to drink responsibly? Well, just keep it in your own
locker right at the distillery. Genius.

Looking into the gift shop upon finishing the Jelinek tour. No
thanks, we've got homemade slivo to drink first. 

After the Jelinek tour, we stopped into an industrial part of Vicoviche (town where the distillery is) and watched some guys blow glass for a little while. Very cool to see these guys work. No messing around with these dudes -- they were in the zone...moving around each other w like they were making pizzas rather than carrying globs of molten glass. And for some reason, the dress code was athletic shorts, short sleeve oxford shirts, socks and birkenstocks (b/c that seems to be ideal footwear when working with liquid fire).

Next we drove up to the spa town known as Luhocovice to look around. Since it was freezing, we didn't have the chance to really appreciate everything, but we did make a good effort. We walked around the town and even drank from a few natural mineral springs. Apparently, people from all over come here to recharge and get all kinds of health treatments from aromatherapy, respiration therapy, massage, etc. Will have to go back some time during the summer. 

 Then, we headed back into Zlin to see the famous 15-story Bat'a Skyscraper. The building was the headquarters of the Bat'a international shoe organization between 1939 and 1945. The Bat'a Shoe Company was founded in Zlin in 1894 by Tomas Bat'a and has sold more than 14 billion pairs of shoes. The company is and was an amazing story. When Tomas died in a plane crash in '32, the shoe company he started just 38 years prior was employing more than 17,000 people around the world. The skyscraper looks over blocks and blocks and blocks of shoe manufacturing buildings. It's crazy how much industry was in that little town of Zlin and how many shoes worn by people all over the world were made in the town where my family lives in the CZ. Very cool.

Shoe factory buildings.

View of the other side of town.

More shoe making buildings.

But the weirdest thing about the Bata'a skyscraper is that the executive office itself is an elevator. Amazing and the pics here don't do it justice...

 So we went home to Jirka's after a long day and had another amazing dinner. The next day we started off with a breakfast of meats, cheeses and hardboiled eggs. Went for a short walk with Jirka and Mike and then headed back home to get ready for the drive to Bzenec to see the rest of the Otepka's and have a big party in the family wine celler.

Babichka comes through again. When we asked what it was,
she said "what I had in the fridge." It was amazing...stuffed
chicken with potatoes.

Breakfast of champions. 

Just a little meal before hitting the road (previous meal was
about 2 hours prior. Death.)

No joking, the Urqell tasted like honey over there.
Definitely different/better.

To Jirka, Mirka, Babichka, and Petr: thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You were amazing hosts and we hope to be able to return the favor to you some day. Stay in touch!!