Once a year, a drink appears in Czechia that you can neither buy at any other time nor take home with you: burčák lasts only a few days and keeps fermenting right there in the bottle. Here's when the season starts, where to drink it in Prague, and how to avoid a fake.
Burčák (burčák) is grape must halfway through fermentation. It's no longer juice but not yet wine: the yeast has already turned some of the sugar into alcohol, but the process isn't finished. Hence its cloudy look, sweetness and slight fizz.
Its strength ranges from 3 to 8 percent and keeps climbing each day as it ferments. That's why burčák is never sealed airtight — otherwise the bottle would burst — bottles are left with a vent for the gas to escape. As a result, it can't be stored for long or carried home.
It's best drunk chilled, on the day you buy it. By the next day it's already a different drink, and a couple of days later it's young wine.
By law, burčák can be sold from 1 August to 30 November. But the real season is set by the grapes, not the calendar.
The first batches, from early-ripening varieties, appear as early as the start of August — in 2026 the Chateau Valtice winery was first to put burčák on sale. The season really gets going from the second half of August and runs until October, when burčák is gradually replaced by young wine.
The best time is September: the choice is at its widest, and it's exactly when the wine festivals take place.
City-wide young wine festivals take place across Prague in September. Dozens of winemakers pour burčák there at once, so you can compare.
Festival dates sometimes shift, so check the organisers' website before you go, or take a look at our listings.
In season, burčák turns up in wine shops, at farmers' markets and in stalls selling Moravian wine. The most reliable option is to buy directly from a winemaker — at a wine festival or on a trip through South Moravia.
Every autumn, things that aren't really burčák turn up on the shelves. There are a few signs worth checking.
A common substitute is ordinary grape must brought in from abroad. The difference is noticeable in taste: a fake lacks burčák's characteristic yeasty tang.
As a rough guide, it's around 100 crowns a litre at the winery, and more at city festivals and wine shops. It's usually sold by the decilitre, so you can try it for not much money.
It's stronger than it seems. The sweet taste masks the alcohol, and the strength rises as fermentation continues. Driving is out of the question.
It's tough on the stomach. The live yeast keeps working even after you've drunk it. A litre in one go is a bad idea, especially the first time.
You can't take it home. A bottle of fermenting must is dangerous on a plane, and a day later it wouldn't be burčák anyway. It has to be drunk here and now — that's the whole point.
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