St Martin's wine and a wine bath for a slow November evening

St Martin's wine: the first glass of the new harvest

Every year, at eleven minutes past eleven on the eleventh of November, wine bars, restaurants and wine shops across the Czech Republic pull the first corks of the new vintage. St Martin's wine, sold in the Czech Republic under the brand Svatomartinské, is not a seasonal gimmick dreamt up by retailers. Svatomartinské is a collective trademark owned by the Czech Wine Fund (Vinařský fond), and a wine may carry it only if it meets a fixed set of rules and an expert panel has tasted and approved it. The grapes must be harvested that same year in Bohemia or Moravia, the wine must be made from approved early-ripening varieties, and none of it may go on sale before St Martin's Day itself. The result is a shared starting line, one that winemakers, sommeliers and people who rarely give wine a second thought all look forward to.

Young wine is a different animal from the vintage bottlings that spend months in barrel or bottle. It is fresh and fruity, with brighter acidity and a lighter body, and it often smells of freshly pressed grapes. Nobody expects depth from it, and nobody lays it down for years. Its charm is in the moment, which is why it is best drunk over the winter, ideally before spring, while it still has its zip. White St Martin's wine may only be made from Müller-Thurgau, Moravian Muscat and Early Red Veltliner. Red is limited to Blauer Portugieser and St Laurent, while rosé may also include Zweigelt. Only dry wines qualify for the brand.

• Release: 11 November at 11:11
• Grapes: this year's harvest from Bohemia or Moravia
• Colours: white, rosé and red
• Style: light, fresh and fruity, made to be drunk young
• Label: a trademark granted only after the wine has been assessed

This year St Martin's falls on a Wednesday, so plenty of people will raise their first glass over lunch or on the way home from work. If you would rather take the day slowly, young wine sits naturally alongside the things November does best: warmth, quiet and a long evening. Lázně Pramen has been around since 2008, and the wine bath is one of our two signature treatments. It is not meant to replace the glass at the wine bar, only to add something that keeps you warm on the night the puddles first freeze over. Below, we bring the two together: the story behind the tradition, and a practical guide to planning a wine bath in November.

Geese, a white horse and the eleventh of November: where the custom began

St Martin of Tours lived in the fourth century, and Europe remembers him chiefly for a single gesture. As a young Roman soldier, so the story goes, he met a freezing beggar at the gates of Amiens, cut his military cloak in two with his sword and handed over half. He later left the army, became a monk and eventually Bishop of Tours. Legend has it that, reluctant to take the office, he hid in a barn among the geese, only for their honking to give him away. Folk tradition sees this as the origin of the St Martin's goose, though the real reason was probably more down to earth: by autumn the geese were fat, and there was no sense in feeding them through the winter.

For centuries the eleventh of November carried real weight in the countryside. It marked the end of the farming year. The harvest was in, the wine was in the barrels and farmhands were paid their wages. Servants were free to change masters, which made the day an obvious moment for a celebration, a shared meal and a first taste of the new wine. The feast before the Advent fast was also the last big party for some weeks. So a saint's feast day, the farming calendar and the simple pleasure of a good harvest all landed on the same date.

• St Martin: soldier, monk and Bishop of Tours, 4th century
• The cloak shared with a beggar: a symbol of compassion and generosity
• The geese in the barn: the legend of a hiding place betrayed
• End of the farming year: wages paid and new service agreed
• The last feast before Advent: goose, sauerkraut, dumplings and young wine

Czech November has its weather saying too: "Martin arrives on a white horse", a hope or a fear that the first snow will come with the saint. It does not happen every year, but the cold evenings and short days arrive without fail. This is where the old custom meets what we offer today. Autumn was traditionally a time to celebrate the harvest and the warmth of home, and the modern equivalent is an evening when you get properly warm and have nowhere to be. A wine bath with red wine, grape seeds and honey fits naturally into that story: here wine is not just tasted from a glass but taken in with the whole body, in warm water and in the quiet of a private room.

Why a wine bath suits November

November is the month when body and mind both slow down. The days shorten, you leave for work in the dark and come home at dusk, the wind picks up and damp cold works its way through every layer. Plenty of people spend these weeks looking for something that warms them up and lets them switch off for a while. A warm bath is one of the oldest and simplest answers. The water in our tubs runs at 35-38 °C, close to body temperature: a touch below it at the lower end, a touch above at the upper. It is not the kind of scalding soak you abandon after a few minutes, but a gentle, thorough warmth in which you can lie back, talk and breathe deeply.

The wine bath fits the season in substance as well. We add red wine to the water, along with grape seed extract, vine leaves, honey, herbs and French lavender flowers. Grape seeds and skins contain polyphenols, compounds that have been the subject of a good deal of research. We are not about to sell them as medicine, though. For us the bath is first and foremost a sensory experience: it smells of the vineyard, turns the water ruby red and echoes what is happening in the cellars at exactly this time of year. While winemakers fill the first bottles of young wine, you are lying in a bath made from wine and grapes.

• Water temperature: 35-38 °C, close to body temperature
• Ingredients: red wine, grape seed extract, vine leaves, honey, herbs, French lavender flowers
• Time in the tub: usually around 20 minutes, up to 30 on request
• Rest: roughly 50 minutes on a heated wheat-straw bed
• In the room: a bottle of wine and a plate of fruit and cheese

The third reason is privacy. All of our rooms are private, so your St Martin's evening is not spent among strangers in a noisy pool but with your partner or a few friends. Restaurants tend to be busy around the eleventh of November, while here the room is yours alone for a full 90 minutes. It works for couples marking an anniversary or simply the end of a demanding autumn, for friends who see each other once a year, and for anyone who wants to treat themselves. Warmth, wine and silence are what November offers anyway; we simply put them in one room.

How a wine bath works, step by step

The whole wine bath lasts 90 minutes in the room and follows a clear rhythm. We suggest arriving 10-15 minutes before your booking so you can change at leisure without feeling rushed. The first ten minutes or so are for preparation: a member of our team walks you through the room, explains the whirlpool and the shower, and then adds the natural blend to the water right in front of you. You watch the wine colour the water and the lavender flowers and vine leaves drift across the surface. There is something of the ritual of opening a bottle about it.

Then comes the bath itself, usually about twenty minutes, or up to thirty if you prefer. The large oval tub is handmade from wood. An automatic whirlpool keeps the water gently moving, so the blend disperses and the warmth spreads evenly through the body. A bottle of wine and a plate of fruit and cheese wait on the side table, so you can raise a glass without leaving the tub. If you want to taste St Martin's wine specifically, you are best off having your first glass of young wine at a wine bar or over dinner; the bottle in the room is part of the treatment and makes no claim to be a particular vintage or label.

1. Arrive 10-15 minutes early and change
2. About 10 minutes of preparation, with the blend added to the water in front of you
3. 20-30 minutes in the whirlpool tub at 35-38 °C
4. Roughly 50 minutes on a heated wheat-straw bed
5. A shower in the room and an unhurried exit into the November evening

The second half matters just as much as the tub. Once you are out of the tub, you lie down on a heated bed of wheat straw that smells of open fields and gives off a soft warmth. An electric fireplace casts a warm glow, the lights are low and nobody disturbs you. Those fifty or so minutes are yours for conversation, for silence or for a short nap. The wine bath can be booked in Ruby Spring (Rubínový pramen), Golden Spring (Zlatý pramen) and Emerald Spring (Smaragdový pramen); each has its own character and capacity, which we cover in the next section.

For two, for four, or with beer on the side

At Lázně Pramen you pay per booking, meaning per room, not per person. What counts is the treatment and the number of tubs, not which room you choose. A classic wine bath in a single tub for one or two guests costs from 201 euros per booking, and the price is the same whether you come alone or as a couple sharing the tub. A bottle of wine and a plate of fruit and cheese are included. For a couple who want St Martin's evening to themselves, Ruby Spring is a natural fit, with its larch whirlpool tub, electric fireplace and heated straw bed. It is the most intimate of our rooms, ideal for an anniversary or a surprise.

If there are three or four of you, look at Golden Spring, our most spacious room, with two oak whirlpool tubs. It is the only room with two tubs side by side. Two wine tubs cost 268 euros per booking for two guests, 354 euros for three and 367 euros for four. For a group where half would rather have beer, there is the combined beer and wine bath: one tub with wine, the other with beer. That comes to 238 euros for two guests, 278 euros for three and 307 euros for four.

• Wine bath, one tub, 1-2 guests: from 201 euros per booking
• Beer bath, one tub, 1-2 guests: from 148 euros per booking
• Two wine tubs in Golden Spring: 268 euros for 2 guests, 354 euros for 3, 367 euros for 4
• Wine and beer combination in Golden Spring: 238 euros for 2 guests, 278 euros for 3, 307 euros for 4
• Time in the room: 90 minutes

We mention beer on purpose. Not everyone in a group loves wine, and a St Martin's evening should not push anyone into anything. The beer bath, made with Žatec hops, malt, brewer's yeast and Petrovické zlato craft beer, starts at 148 euros per booking and comes with unlimited pale and dark beer on tap plus light snacks. In Golden Spring one couple can soak in wine while the other lies in beer, all in the same room and around the same table. Larger groups can take all three rooms with tubs at once, up to eight guests in total: four in Golden Spring, two in Ruby Spring and two in Emerald Spring.

A longer evening: cedar phyto-sauna, massage and wine

If you want to stretch St Martin's Day a little further, one of our premium programmes is the answer. They take place only in Emerald Spring, our V.I.P. room for one or two guests, and last 150 minutes, a full two and a half hours. The room has a larch whirlpool tub, an electric fireplace and a heated wheat-straw bed, plus something you will not find in our other rooms: a cedar phyto-sauna, or cedar barrel. It is a small upright barrel made of Siberian cedar that you sit inside with your body enclosed and your head outside. Steam from herbal infusions surrounds your body while you breathe the ordinary air of the room. A session lasts about fifteen minutes, a gentle, deep warming with your head outside the steam the whole time.

The V.I.P. Wine SPA programme opens in the cedar barrel, moves on to a thirty-minute relaxation massage or peeling, whichever you prefer, then a wine bath in the whirlpool tub, and finishes with a rest on the straw bed by the electric fireplace. A bottle of wine and a plate of fruit and cheese are included. Prices start at 326 euros per booking for one or two guests. For a couple who want to treat the evening as a small celebration, it is the most complete option: first you warm through, then a therapist takes over, and only after that comes the tub.

• V.I.P. Wine SPA: 1-2 guests, 150 minutes, from 326 euros per booking
• Delux Wine SPA: 1 guest only, 150 minutes, from 326 euros
• Cedar phyto-sauna: about 15 minutes, head stays outside
• Delux includes a 20-minute wine peeling, a 40-minute wine body wrap and a 40-minute full-body massage with grape seed oil
• Delux is the only programme that includes a bathrobe

Delux Wine SPA is designed for a single guest and is the most thorough wine treatment we offer. After the cedar barrel comes a twenty-minute wine peeling, a forty-minute wine body wrap and a forty-minute full-body massage with grape seed oil. The programme closes with a rest by the electric fireplace, a glass of wine and a plate of cheese. It is the only programme that includes a bathrobe, and prices start at 326 euros. It makes a fine gift for someone who deserves an entire afternoon to themselves. Its beer counterpart is V.I.P. Beer SPA, from 293 euros per booking, with unlimited Petrovické zlato. The V.I.P. programmes are for up to two guests and Delux for one; none of them is designed for groups.

Planning your St Martin's evening

Lázně Pramen is at Dejvická 255/18 in Prague 6, about two minutes on foot from Hradčanská metro station. We are open from 10:00 to 22:00 on weekdays and from 10:00 to 23:00 at weekends. St Martin's falls on a Wednesday this year, so if you want to catch the 11:11 release itself, you could have your young wine at lunchtime and book the wine bath for the afternoon or early evening. Or flip it round: the spa first, then dinner with goose and St Martin's wine at one of the restaurants in Dejvice. Both plans work well; it is just worth thinking about the order.

Experience tells us it is better not to come straight from a heavy St Martin's feast. Roast goose with sauerkraut and dumplings is wonderful, but lying in warm water on a full stomach is less comfortable. A lighter lunch, then the bath, then goose in the evening tends to be the more pleasant rhythm. Wine works the same way: there is a bottle in the room, and if you have already been tasting at a wine bar, there is no need to finish it. Drink water between glasses, since warmth and alcohol go together better when you are well hydrated. Anyone who would rather skip wine entirely can choose a beer bath or simply a massage.

• Address: Dejvická 255/18, Prague 6, 2 minutes from Hradčanská metro
• Opening hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-22:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-23:00
• Arrival: 10-15 minutes before your booking
• Suggested order: a lighter lunch, the bath, then dinner with young wine
• Hydration: water between glasses

Not everyone in your party has to get into a tub. In Sapphire Spring (Safírový pramen) we have a salt cave with ten tonnes of salt, a mix of rock salt, Dead Sea salt and Himalayan salt. There is no tub here, so no rim to climb over, and this is where we offer massages: a thirty-minute relaxation massage for the back, neck and shoulders from 33 euros, a sixty-minute full-body relaxation massage from 50 euros and a sixty-minute sports massage from 75 euros. There is one massage table, so when two guests come together the massages run one after the other, and whoever is waiting relaxes in a comfortable armchair in the salt cave itself. If you have questions about getting into the rooms, call us before booking on +420 728 059 770.

Booking ahead, and a gift idea for Advent

Around St Martin's Day and on November weekends, evening slots can fill up quickly, so it pays to book ahead. The quickest way is the online form on our booking page, where you choose the treatment, room, number of guests and time. You can also book by phone on +420 728 059 770, by email at info@laznepramen.cz, or through our contact page. Your booking becomes binding once you receive our confirmation email. For V.I.P. programmes and groups we may ask for a deposit or full payment in advance.

Plans have a habit of changing in November, whether because of a cold or a work deadline. Cancelling more than 48 hours ahead is free, with a full refund. Cancelling 24-48 hours ahead costs 50% of the price, and cancelling less than 24 hours ahead or not turning up costs 100%. You can change the date free of charge up to 48 hours in advance, subject to availability. If you are more than 15 minutes late, the treatment may be shortened or cancelled without a refund. The terms and conditions in force when your booking is confirmed always apply, and that is also where you will find the full list of contraindications.

• Booking: online, by phone on +420 728 059 770 or by email at info@laznepramen.cz
• Cancellation more than 48 hours ahead: free
• Cancellation 24-48 hours ahead: 50% of the price
• Cancellation less than 24 hours ahead or no-show: 100% of the price
• Gift voucher bought online: can be returned within 14 days of purchase

St Martin's is also a good moment to start thinking about Christmas. If you would rather not hunt for presents at the last minute, a gift voucher arrives by email as a PDF. There are two kinds: a voucher for a set amount, where the recipient chooses both the treatment and the date, and a voucher for a specific treatment, where they only need to pick the day. A voucher for a wine bath in Ruby Spring or for Delux Wine SPA in Emerald Spring carries the mood of November on into winter. The validity period is printed on the voucher itself, and a voucher bought online can be returned within 14 days of purchase. Whether you raise your first glass of young wine with friends or on your own, we wish you a warm and peaceful November.