The viticultural expert Prof. Ing. Vilém Kraus (1924-2013) is considered the most important Czech viticultural expert of the 20th century (his son of the same name was a winemaker and died already in 2004). He studied agricultural and forestry technology as well as agriculture in Prague. For a large part of his life he worked at the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, researching and breeding new grape varieties and rootstocks. Either through himself or his team, many new grape varieties were created. These included Arolanka, Cerason, Erilon, Fratava, GM 6493 and GM 6494, K1 (rootstock), Kofranka, Laurot, Malverina, Marlen, Nativa, Neronet, Rinot, Rondo (basic variety), Rubinet, Savilon, Serena, Sibera and Vesna. In the 1980s he developed the vine training Vertiko.
From 1959 he worked as a teacher at the Viticulture Institute and in the period 1964 to 1991 as head of the Faculty of Horticulture at Mendel University in Lednice. Kraus was also chairman and scientific secretary of Moravín, the association of Moravian winegrowers. During lectures, visits and trips abroad on the subject of viticulture, he often acted as an interpreter because he was fluent in French, German and Russian. He was also active in the field of training, among others for sommeliers. In 1990, he was finally appointed professor of viticulture and oenology.
Kraus was also extensively active as a publicist on the subject of viticulture and grape varieties. He wrote more than 50 scientific papers on the physiology of the vine, training & pruning and the history of Bohemian and Moravian viticulture, almost 200 articles in Czech, German and Austrian wine journals and about 15 books as author and co-author. After his retirement, he continued to work on the subject of viticulture and, among other things, helped to draft the Czech wine law. Kraus was honoured and awarded several times nationally and internationally, among others by the Czech Republic for his scientific achievements and by the OIV (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin) for his life's work. See also under Viticultural Personalities.
