The wine cellars of the Moravian trails

South Moravia feels like a wine region organised around bicycles rather than cars. Signed trails run through the vineyards between Znojmo and the Slovak border, mostly on quiet field roads and old railway alignments, linking villages three or four kilometres apart, which is exactly the spacing that makes a day of it work.

The cellars have arranged themselves to suit: racks by the door, a terrace facing the vines, and a tasting you can do at eleven in the morning without anybody raising an eyebrow. Sonberk stands above Popice in glass and concrete, looking across at the Pálava hills. Lahofer near Znojmo put a walkable wave of a roof on its winery and uses it as an amphitheatre in summer. U Kapličky in Zaječí is set up for riders properly, down to a wash, a toolbox and a bed if the tasting goes the way tastings go.

Café Fara at Klentnice is not a winery at all. It is a Baroque vicarage beside the church, directly on the route under the Pálava, roasting its own coffee for the morning when what you need is the other drink.