Heard it on the grapevine: Polish wine’s quiet renaissance
Swap the staid stereotypes of Żubrówka vodka and Żywiec lager for vineyards and vintages, because Poland is in the throes of a viticultural renaissance, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for centuries.On a road trip tracing Poland’s best terroirs back in the summer of 2023, I met winemakers going against the grain, unshackled by tradition and producing unpretentious, expressive pours that more than merit a place on your dining table.Lately, Polish wines have been cropping up all over bar and restaurant lists: Niemczańska’s chardonnay at London’s most emblematic Polish restaurant, the borscht-fronted Daquise in South Kensington, say, while chic bar Spry in Edinburgh has started stocking my favourite producers, Dom Bliskowice, Kamil Barczentewicz and Nizio.But you won’t find bottles nestling between the neat rows of kabanos sausages of your local Polski sklep, nor lining the supermarket shelves.Or not just yet, anyway.
Among my parents’ generation, the term “Polish wine” is marred by sickly-sweet memories of moonshined fruit concoctions, but the country’s grape-growing heyday was some 500 years ago, courtesy of Cistercian monks.An unfortunate succession of icy temperatures, wars a-plenty and communism dealt its vines a hammer blow, but, in typical Polish fashion, something beautiful blossomed out of all that hardship.A loosening of laws in 2008 catalysed the country’s contemporary wine revival.I spent a stint living in Warsaw a decade ago, when the city bristled with cool, creative cuisine, but back then it wasn’t easy to find homegrown wine on a menu.But no longer: more than 600 winnice (wineries) have sprung up across all 16 voivode (regions), with the heaviest smattering along Poland’s southeast and southwest fringes.
Today, plantings include hardy hybrids such as solaris and hibernal, which can weather the harsh winters, and, increasingly, in our warming climate, classic vitis vinifera varieties such as riesling and pinot noir, though tiny outputs make it tricky (and pricey) to get hold of over here.I loved Ultra, an earthy, herbaceous skin-contact johanniter made by Maciej Sondij of Dom Bliskowice, an architect turned Burgundy importer and restaurateur, on the ammonite-studded inclines two-and-a-half hours’ drive south of Warsaw.At Winnica Silesian, a former communist collective on granite-laden soil 30 miles outside Wrocław, Esben Madsen (a Danish oceanographer who married into the founding Mazurek family) produces playful pours, including a beaujolais-like red made from rondo, dubbed Rondo Vous.Much arrives through the UK’s sole Polish wine importer, Adam Michocki, a Leeds-based sommelier who set up Central Wines after being wowed by an “absolutely spectacular” bottle from Silesia in 2021.He works with small, family-run wineries, supplying a host of Michelin-starred restaurants and chefs (think Sat Bains, Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal) as well as independent wine shops across the country, to sell-out reception.
“The fresh, crisp nature of Polish wines really fits the current trend for the palate of UK customers,” he says.Cheers – na zdrowie – to that.Niemczańska 2020 Chardonnay £24.90 Central Wines, 12.8%.
Like a polished white burgundy via Lower Silesia.Clean vanilla notes, hot buttered toast and a medium body that’s a dream with mushroom-sauerkraut stuffed pierogi.Silesian Cuvee Coloree NV £31.50 Highbury Vintners, 12% On the list at The Spärrows in Manchester, this hotchpotch of three different vintages and varieties (rondo, regent and cabernet cortis) results in a crushable red with silky tannins and sour cherries on the palate.Kamil Barczentewicz 2023 Riesling £19.
50 The Wine Society, 12% Green mango, white peach – a cool-climate riesling reminiscent of something you’d find in Alsace, from a star producer near the Renaissance town of Kazimierz Dolny, southeast Poland.Turnau Solaris 2024 £29.80 Central Wines, 12.5% Swap your sauvignon blanc for this bright, joyful solaris made in Baltic-tempered northwest Poland: an explosion of citrus, tropical fruit and rosy apples.Victoria Brzezinski is co-author of Drinking the World: A Wine Odyssey, published by Pavilion Books/HarperCollins at £22.
To order a copy for £19.80 go to guardianbookshop.com
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