The wine tradition is ancient, but alive and constantly forming. There are places like Italy or France, where wine culture is deeply rooted in the local and national identity. Wine is as commonplace as bread. And there are places like Poland. A few centuries ago, in Polish literature we could find mentions of ‘’Burgunder’’ or ‘’Węgrzyn’’ (lit. Hungarian). However, wine-drinking culture had somewhat vanished in the last century and only recently it has been coming back to life. The lack of quality product on the supermarket shelf, which was the main hurdle for a Polish wine lover, is no longer the case. Wine growing and winemaking is another matter completely. In this sphere Polish producers face a number of unique challenges: environmental, financial, technical or even legal (only since 2008 selling wine from your own vineyard is permissible under Polish law). Consequently, many Polish winemakers still have some work to do before they can match the quality of their more experienced colleagues abroad. Luckily for us, there are a handful of local vineyards which significantly stand out from the crowd already. Today we are going to visit one of them, a vineyard called Winnica Płochockich.
Winnica Płochockich is tucked away in the rolling hills of Świętokrzyskie voivodeship in southern Poland. It is a family business run by a couple, Barbara and Marcin Płochoccy. The operation which started in 2006 was only the third vineyard to be officially registered in the whole country. Interestingly, the owners did not have a background in winemaking and initially balanced their passion for wine with other professional responsibilities. The vineyard is located in Daromin village in the Sandomierz area – 3 hours by car from either Warsaw or Krakow. The winery welcomes visitors for casual shopping, tours that include tasting or even overnight stays in rooms, which are situated literally above tanks of fermenting wine! I also highly recommend walks among the vines; feast for the eyes guaranteed. I visited in early May so the vineyard was just coming to life after the winter. Neighbouring orchards which were in full bloom supplemented the additional palette of colours.
Let’s talk about wine. The estate is fairly small with just 7 hectares of land and yet growing 20 different grape varieties. As a result, a wide selection of both reds and whites is on offer. The vineyard grows international varieties such as Pinot Noir and Riesling, as well as more niche ones such as Hibernal Solaris or Johanniter. While white wines are certainly the highlight, any bottle with the Płochocki logo is sure to impress. The same cannot be said for every vineyard nearby. However, I am not going to go into more detail about that now because I don’t want to prematurely discourage eager local enotourists. Let’s just focus on the outstanding example today. During our stay, we were lucky to try a great selection of wines. Below, I go over the headlines and the most interesting examples.
From the reds we tried Ma Fo and Rodo. Ma Fo is made from Frontenac and Marechal Foch. Rodo is also a blend of Marechal Foch, Regent and Cabernet Cortis. This was my first experience with these varieties, but I very much enjoyed that first encounter. It was evident that the wines came from a cool climate. Satisfyingly, they turned out to be quite complex. Ma Fo was full-bodied with flavours of dark fruit, plums,blueberries and notes of vanilla. Rodo, on the other hand, was more crisp and subtle, tasting of cherry and redcurrants.
Luckily for us, Barbara also had the last few bottles of 2020 Pinot Noir. This single variety wine was produced in a limited series of just 600 bottles. The fact that it was already sold out might tell you something about its quality. I would say that this bottle was a typical example of Pinot Noir, which in this context, is a very good thing! Regrettably, often when this variety is grown in unusual geographies, a flat and characterless wine is the result. Not this time. This Pinot was smooth, with spicy notes of pepper and a palate full of red fruit such as cranberry and ripe cherry. Tannins were soft and pleasant. I am now imagining the kind of wine it will become after another two or three years of aging.
I must say, at this point I was quite happy already. It was very satisfying to find red wines of this quality produced by Polish winemakers. Nevertheless, the best that Winnica Płochockich has to offer are their whites. We tasted Hibia and Inspira Volcano. These two would easily stand their ground in comparison with many foreign bottles. Not only as an interesting novelty from Eastern Europe, but mostly thanks to their complex structure and intensity of flavours. These whites were blends similarly to Ma Fo and Rodo, made out of five and three varieties, respectively.
Hibia is made of Hibernal, Solaris, Traminer, Cserszegi Fűszeres and Muscaris. It displays pale yellow hues. It is very fruity both on the nose and the palate. The reverie of different aromas was rich, but not overwhelming. It was very fun to enjoy its changing nature: from tropical fruit flavours like melon and pineapple to fresh flowers, jasmine and roses. Underlying acidity balanced the wine nicely. It’s a summer drink, to drink with friends – just have fun and enjoy what’s good in life!
Inspira Volcano was a different story. It’s a rather serious wine made from Johanniter, Seyval Blanc and Hibernal. This white wine was very good shortly after release, however, as a big bonus, it also ages pretty well. The older it gets, the more developed its character and flavour get. Rumour has it that on her visit to Poland, Jancis Robinson (a world-famous wine guru) tried a 10 year old bottle of Inspira Volcano and was very pleased with it. Unlike Hibia, Inspira spends 12 months in oak barrels. Citrus notes dominate, but there is something balsamic to the flavour. The result is lavish, but intricate and elegant.
Winnica Płochockich differs from their neighbours in one more aspect. They focus on dry wines. The exception is a typical dessert wine, Raisins. Raisins, as the name suggests, is produced from the juice from dried grapes, analogous to some Italian and Spanish sweet wines. This achieves concentration of sugar and flavour. Unsurprisingly, it’s fairly sweet, but remains refreshing thanks to a decent level of acidity. The main flavour notes included exotic fruit, mango in particular. The raisins aroma was present too.
Is now a perfect time to stock up on some bottles of Inspira Volcano or Pinot Noir? Or Riesling, which is a new release from the winery and incidentally very well suited for this climate. I wonder about the future of Winnica Płochockich, the next 5, 10 or even 20 years…Considering the passion of the owners and the quality of their wines, I can’t help but think that they might do pretty well. It’s difficult to foresee that the popularity of a certain product is about to skyrocket. Is Winnica Płochockich just steps away from this moment? There is no way to say. But in the ‘’worst case scenario’’, I will be left with a few bottles of exceptionally good wine. I can probably live with that!
Winnica Płochockich: https://winnicaplochockich.pl/.
Więcej nieWinnych Podróży wprost na Twoją skrzynkę? Zapisz się!