Let not thirst be thy sorrow, for our cellars are full of barrels! This is how one can loosely translate the German rhyme from the wine list of the hotel "At Archduke Charles", which used to stand in today's Moravská Street just a short walk from Vřídlo. We found the wine menu of the local "Old German cellar" in the collection of Stanislav Burachovich and we want to share this charming archival relic.
Guests chose from this list sometime after 1880, the year of the youngest vintages on offer, of Tramin and Sylvánský from the monastery winery in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. In addition to many Austrian wines, Hungarian, Czech, Dalmatian, German and French wines were drunk here. The most expensive was a large bottle of Heidsieck Monopole Sec champagne for 6 gold pieces and 50 kreutzers (converted to today's purchasing power of 100 euros). The least expensive was a quarter-litre of table wine at 15 kreuzers (equivalent to 2.2 Euro today) and for 18 kreuzers drinkers could cheer themselves up with a large black coffee. If you read through the menu item by item, you will find the brands still available on the market. For example, Moët Chandon.
The operator of the wine bar and co-owner of the hotel was Mr Wilhelm Gärtner, who at the end of the century had the original Baroque building demolished and replaced it with the new, lavish Hotel Nuremberg Court. This still stands today as part of the Tosca operation.
Mr Gärtner was apparently fond of all sorts of drinking rhymes, or at least he knew that they increased sales. The wine list says so:
