The Plze Wine Cellars at Petrov

Plze is a hamlet of wine cellars rather than houses: several dozen small whitewashed buildings packed along a lane, each one a press room built over a vaulted cellar cut into the sandy slope. Nobody lives here. The doors, window frames and gables carry painted folk ornament in blue and ochre, the same motifs that appear on Slovacko costume, repainted every few years by the families who own them. The hamlet is protected as a reservation of folk architecture, so nothing new goes up and nothing gets rendered in modern materials. On open weekends growers pull wine straight from the barrel in the cool of the cellars; midweek the lane is silent.

What you actually see

• The painted gables - blue and ochre folk ornament repainted by each owning family.
• The vaulted cellars - barrel roofs cut into sand, cold enough to keep wine without machines.
• The lane - the whole hamlet packed along one street, with no houses among them.
• Weekend tastings - wine drawn from the barrel by the growers themselves.

When to go

May to October, and specifically at weekends, when cellars open; September and October bring the harvest and the most doors unlocked. The Straznice folklore festival in late June puts crowds through here. Midday whitewash glares, so late afternoon is kinder for looking and photographing. Confirm a tasting in advance if you want a guaranteed pour.

Honest expectations

Most cellars are shut on weekdays and outside the season, and there is no shop, cafe, ticket office or toilet; if nobody is about you are looking at closed doors. Tastings are informal, cash only, and conducted in Czech. Czech law is absolute on drink-driving, cycling included in practice, so arrange a driver, a taxi or a bed within walking distance.

Nearby

Straznice with its chateau park sits next door; the Bile Karpaty hills rise to the east.