According to town custom, vintners gather with the mayor at the Valtice Wine School to recognize the year's 10 vineyard guards, students chosen from the local school who vow to protect the surrounding vineyards throughout the harvest. After an induction ceremony, the mayor and other town officials, on horseback, lead the vintners and new guards through the town to herald the start of the wine harvest. During the vinobrani festivities, south Moravians, renowned for their relaxed pace of life and warm hospitality, throw open their wine cellars to neighboring provinces as well as to visitors from around Europe. Unlike fine aged wines, burcak is meant to be drunk almost immediately, as it goes sour after about four hours. Though burcak is the focus of the festival, there is more to the celebration than drinking.
Old friends catch up, taste the young wine and enjoy taking part in the traditions of the event.
These traditions include the dulcimer music that echoes through the narrow Mikulov streets during the festival. He adds with a smile that the pace of the singing and dancing noticeably picks up as the day goes on and the burcak imbibing increases. The Valtice celebration, organized by school officials, is free of charge, but the larger Mikulov and Znojmo festivals are organized by local firms and charge an admission fee. Znojmo, the last of the three festivals, is centered around the simple joys of sipping burcak among friends and enjoying the musical traditions. Most celebrants simply stroll around the streets, refilling their glasses at various burcak booths around town.