"Swap the staid stereotypes of Zubrowka vodka and Zywiec 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: Niemczanska'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."
"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."
Poland is experiencing a viticultural renaissance, with more than 600 wineries now operating across all 16 voivodeships, concentrated in the southeast and southwest. Plantings combine hardy hybrids such as solaris and hibernal with increasing plantings of vitis vinifera varieties like riesling and pinot noir as the climate warms. Contemporary producers favor unpretentious, expressive wines that are beginning to appear on international restaurant and bar lists. Historical grape-growing peaked around 500 years ago under Cistercian monks, but icy winters, wars and communism devastated vineyards. A loosening of wine laws in 2008 catalysed recent growth. Production remains small-scale and largely absent from mainstream supermarkets.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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