 It's morning. That's why I look like poo, enjoying my cup of coffee. There's been a cat that's been sleeping on my mat in the morning. Hey there, little guy. Or gal. So this episode is dedicated to my mom. Oh, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. This is the show where we help you drink adventurously so you can expand your palate and expand your mind. And I don't think it gets as exotic in the wine world as Polish wine. Yeah, that's right. Polish wine. That's what we're going to taste and talk about today. So this show is dedicated to my mom and let me explain why. My mother is of Polish descent. Blue eyes, blonde hair, super Polish. You know, and I didn't really start traveling around the world traveling a lot until graduate school. So I wasn't really a worldly person when I was young. And I remember that when I was little, my mom every year wanted to go to the Polish festival until we go to Ohio and taste the foods to get around to other, you know, other people. And I didn't, I never, I don't even remember going once. And so, you know, now looking, looking back, hindsight's always 2020. Maybe I should have, should have went sort of savored some of the foods because I like some Polish foods. Since I'm traveling a lot in Europe, I'm becoming more familiar with the culture. I think that would have meant a lot to her. So, sorry, mom, this one's to make it up. Kids, if your parents, if your parents want to introduce you to their, their origins, I would recommend just go even if you're not interested. It'll mean a lot to them in the future. Let's get started. So Poland, did they even make wine? You know, the Poles are known as being a great market actually from wines from all around the world. The traditional reasons, even in Central Eastern Europe, you know, Poland's a huge market for a lot of these countries. But there are 600 hectares of vineyards there, about 300 producers. So we're talking about tiny, tiny production. Now you have to understand, it is pretty far north. But if you look at the map, it's right at the edge of, you know, the northernmost point of where grape growing is possible. Wine grapes traditionally grow between 30 and 50 degrees of latitude north and south. You got to think of the Rheingau in Germany, Mosul, those are at 49 degrees north, even even 55 degrees north. These bad boys right here, Vialichka, where this vineyard, this village is located is at 49 degrees north. So it's about the same latitude, you know, in the Rheingau, the Mosul, they do grow Pinot Noir, they do grow Merlot, obviously a lot of re-sling and other grapes as well. This wine, I haven't been to Poland yet, but this is the story behind this. This Rheine, Venice Vialichka, is all, is a biodynamic organic winery. I actually judged and met with the winemaker owner at the Vermintino Competition in Sardinia, Italy earlier this year before COVID started going crazy. I got to know her really well. She was she was really a fantastic person and she sent me some of these wines to try and I'm really excited to get into them. Let's bring in the toughest palate that I know. Yay, brought back the toughest critic I know. You ready to taste some Polish wine? You've actually tasted one of these wines before and I haven't tasted. We're not gonna taste everything today. You'll just have to read our upcoming article, get all the tasting notes, but we're gonna taste two of the wines today. You ready to get started? Yep. This is like I said this is a biodynamic producer. I know I know the woman, the winemaker, but I don't know the wines. So let's get started. We have Jantar for 2015. This is an orange wine macerated for five months. So it's basically like a Mr. Sanz, which is a field blend and just of all the remaining varieties. Let's get into it. I want to hear the taste. I was actually really fascinated because there's a little bit of a combination, which I think can be really good when the wine is pretty young. It gives this sense of refreshing quality. I like the nose immediately. It's very fruity, very pure in terms of the fruit purity. I do get a little bit of the greener too though. It is kind of Austrian in style, don't you think to me? It smells like an Austrian orange wine. It could be. It's actually like what you said and I said as well. It's more towards the fruit and a little bit green. I think it's pretty clean. Yeah. It actually smells really good. It smells kind of like an orange wine of taste. It smells like the acidity might be there. Anything else you want to pick up? It's more of a citrus peel than citrus juice and I also get a little bit of this, just a little bit of very little. It has this sweet banana peel Africa type flavor to me. I love the acidity of this one. It's towards really linseu as a more acidic side, but I love it because despite the acidity, it has fruit concentration. The concentration is actually pretty high over here. I want to say it's a very fruity wine, but it's the intensity of the flavor on the nose as well on the aroma, the intensity, they're both pretty high. I'm pretty impressed with this wine with that amount of, it's only 12 alcohol for the amount of ripeness it can get from an area that's so far north. You like it, huh? I like it. I also think that the fruit was very good. That's why with extraction, with methylation, it gives a very good fruit quality to it. How high? Must I score? I would be very inclined to push towards the 90 in the future, but since it's a fresh wine now, it's quite difficult for me to get there. It's still in the 88-89 point range, which is very high for me by the way. 89 for me, maybe 80 of taste, but I have to say like for the effects, Polish wine, really well made, exciting wine, not just for, not just for the hipster wine crowd, right? It's just, it's a good orange wine. The wine on the finish is a little bit, just a little bit bitter, but it doesn't disrupt the harmony. And there is no, there's near zero astringency in this wine. No. There's really little tendon to it. So people that are being bothered by tannins and orange wine, you're really gonna find a lot to like here. I think it's quite good. It's more towards the crunchy side, right, instead of the tannic side. Agnes, good job. I'm very impressed. Oh, I need to take a sip. Actually, I was staring at you because I didn't really want to pour this wine out. Let's move on. This is a wine that you've already tried. I'm a little bit jealous. I have not tried it yet. This is the Wienze Wieliczka Pinot Noir 2018, which you already tasted. Do you want to tell the story? I had this wine exactly the same vintage in March this year. It was during a press trip and we have our lovely Isabella from Poland who brought this wine to share with us. So there were a couple of us, including journalists from, from Hungary, from Denmark, yeah, from Switzerland and also of course from Croatia as well. And we had it next to a 2002, a rather famous Pinot Noir from Switzerland. I did like the Swiss Pinot Noir better but it's really not fair to compare because that one had more evolution and things like that. But I think what's really cool was I was really impressed by this wine. It was the first Polish wine that really encouraged me to seek out Polish wine. Also among the people who tasted that wine, there were a couple of people who actually prefer this wine to this wine. I gotta give her and her partner credit. To do full biodynamics, such a northerly climate, organics, it's gotta be wet. It's gotta be really difficult. So first of all, I've had a Polish Pinot Noir before, a couple that I was not so fond of. First of all, I'm really liking the nose because it smells like Pinot Noir. We're talking 11-5 alcohol. What are you picking up? A little bit of that, very little, okay, that beetroot quality as well. But when you get a little bit of this beetroot quality, I think often it manifests into something earthy in a Pinot Noir, which is really nice. Really earthy, kind of sour cherry, red raspberry type flavors. True Pinot Noir, true old world Pinot Noir. A lot of nice, let me emphasize the word nice, nice green acidity on the palate, lots of raspberry quality to it. More towards the lighter style of Pinot Noir. I would say that despite the high acidity, there's still a sort of softener to the wine. I really like the softness. Pinot Noir, you always want the silky palate, you know, everything like that. And you're right, sometimes the acidity can just cut from be too sharp. I think it's really well done to me. That's just really like a Pinot Noir I want to try. That's a good way on the palate. I appreciate very much about this wine, right, is that she didn't try to over extract it or push from mom. It is just what it is. It reflects where it comes from. I think just about anyone who tastes this wine would be able to tell that this is like, ah interesting, where is this from, you know, like you would think that it's a cooler climate, it really retains the fruitiness without trying to be more than what the fruit has given. Wow. Off it, so this is good Old World Pinot Noir. All things considered, Pinot Noir, that's not just acid, just not just thin, has character. For me, especially knowing that it's from Poland, especially considering the fact of how it's biodynamic, how difficult it is to create Pinot Noir, to grow grapes in this climate. I'm going straight to 90 on this. I really, really, really enjoy it a lot. I know you're not as high as I am. I'm tough on Pinot Noir, but I do think that this wine is still in the early stage. It can evolve and all that, but currently because it's young and because it's from a cooler climate, it's really quite simple in terms of profile now, but nothing is wrong with this wine. It's really lovely, very well done. So good stuff, I mean it's cool. There's a lot of hybrids, a lot of crosses up there in Poland since it's a little cooler. It's harder to grow. This producer of Viennese, Bielicka, does not have any, has all the discipline for all European grapes. So good job by them. Anything else that you want to add from tasting these two wines, things you've observed? I would highly encourage people to seek out Polish wine by starting with this seller. I really like the wines, and I think you won't be disappointed as well. And I think it gives a very good introduction to what Poland can achieve as a wine country. Wow, so cheered. Very good job, guys. Check out Polish wines. I know they're not easily available. Probably have to go to the country or find some kind of specialty retailer, but for those that want to drink adventurously, it's worth checking out. So nice episode. Cheers. Cheers. We'll see you guys soon. Hello, thanks for watching. Hey, you made it to the end. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell so you know when new videos are out. If you like content like this, check out our Patreon page where you get some behind the scenes exclusive content. Thanks for watching. Cheers.