In January, I did a live stream together with Tomasz Steinmetz, owner of Velo Wino, about wine-making and wine tourism in Poland and Tuscany. (See more in the article Wine Tourism in Poland vs. Tuscany)We then decided to write articles for each other’s websites to further develop the collaboration between Poland and Tuscany. Tomasz Steinmetz’s wine tour company Velo Wino is based in Krakow, in the southern part of Poland. There, he caters to both international and Polish tourists. Below you can read his in-depth article about Polish wine.
It’s 2025 and we enter the new year with plenty of resolutions, but then who doesn’t? If you’ve taken up to learn something new, let me come up with an original suggestion—away in Poland wait for a land of unexplored wine choices and opportunities to travel with a glass and local cuisine. Today, we delve into the vibrant wine scene of a country simply off the beaten track.
Wine has featured East of the Elbe River and North form the Carpathians for at least ten centuries. Not many know that monks brought vines to Poland as early as 1044 (Tyniec Abbey) and that the end of the Middle Ages was greeted there with several thousand hectares of vineyards that belonged to the nobility, the burghers, and the Church.
After a break in early modernity caused by the Little Ice Age, wine trade route improvement and war devastation, Polish wine returned to the main discourse in the end of the second millennium. Modern Poland boasts a variety of terroirs and roughly 600 wine producers.
Oh yes, indeed, 600. You should get acquainted with the Polish word for “vineyard”—”winnica”, as that powerful little word will feature more and more on the world’s wine map. Virtually all producers use it on their labels, supplementing the core word with cute geographical additions or inventive proper names.
Already curious?
Let’s dive into the wine regions of Poland and organize several wine tastings with our friends from VeloWino Poland.
Poland and its wine regions
To start with, Poland has no officially delineated wine regions. No appellations or regional rules to constrain the winemaker either. It’s a land of entrepreneurship and boldness in choosing the style of wine to produce and no vineyard is bigger than 41 hectares (Winnica Turnau near Szczecin holds the winning place when it comes to vine areas). For the sake of clarity (and to pay homage to geography), we can distinguish up to 8 regions of concentrated vine growing in Poland. We shortly describe several of them here.
Lesser Poland, Krakow, and the Polish Jura.
The heart of this region is the lively city of Krakow. The south border is the towering Tatra mountains, while in the North lies a calcareous sub-region called the Jura. Lesser Poland is hilly, with a mild climate in its valleys and the official Polish heat pole in Tuchów. Vineyards here very often invest in hybrid grapes (the Piwi) like Johanniter and Solaris (white) or Rondo and Regent (red). Most of them are located near Krakow, with one outstanding biodynamic undertaking, Winnica Wieliczka, right in the neighborhood of the world-famous salt mine.
The Polish Jura will welcome you with mineral wines and excellent trout from highland streams. Pay attention to Winnica Kresy as the paragon of Polish orange wine and Winnica Białe Skały with a marvelous spa hotel to welcome you to the land of white rock.
Lower Silesia
Between 1745 and 1945 Lower Silesia was part of Prussia and later Germany. The wine traditions flourished, supported by the clement climate in sub-regions such as the Katzengebirge (Trzebnickie Hills) or the Extinguished Volcano Land south of Wroclaw.
Lower Silesia has many exciting wine producers, and it is here that hidden gems of Polish wine-making originate. Try Winnica Jakubów or Winnica Moderna for inventive whites and reasonably mature reds.
Should you get bored with the countryside of the foothills of the Sudety mountains, the city of Wroclaw offers a fantastic wine bar scene, where Polish wine features prominently.
Lubusz Voivodeship
Home to the best of Polish sparkling wines and some of the most hyped Polish vineyards. The Club of 5 led by Guillaume Dubois’s Winnica Gostchorze vinifies the excellent majority of Polish methode traditionelle wines. They proudly look to the future with their lively acidic, yet boldly lees-matured produce.
The city of Zielona Góra hosts a classic wine festival “Winobranie” to continue the traditions of the German times when sekt from here won prizes at world competitions in Paris and London. Just google the Grempler Sekt and its history, while sipping a glass of rejuvenating wine from the tradition-reviving Winnica Miłosz.
While in Lubusz, never forget places like Cigacice, where a cruise on the Oder River can be enjoyed with a box of locally sourced wines from vineyards such as Winnica Cantina, Winnica Stara Winna Góra or Winnica Winne Tarasy. All the slopes you’ll see from the boat used to be vine-covered this not-as-long one century ago.
Sandomierz and the Vistula Valley
People come to Sandomierz for the quaint town, the broad Wisła River banks, and the Sandomierz wine route. It is a perfect example of a co-operatively organized and all-year-available route that hosts the annual young wine festival and several days of open vineyard visits.
For experimentative wines including some qvevri-aged oranges, go to Winnica Płochockich. The Vistulan vineyards of Winnica Nadwiślańska and Winnica Nad Jarem will offer magnificent rosés and muscats respectively.
This can all be enjoyed from a bike saddle, a river boat carved in oak, or a comfortable vineyard bus that takes you to several producers within a few miles distance.
The Vistula Valley has another wine region as well, one focused around the town of Kazimierz. It’s a place where vintners tried their forces against the climate in the twenties and even at the beginning of the communist era when virtually all vineyards were eliminated from the Polish landscape.
It’s a perfect valley ride to try the frühburgunder or the zweigelt from Winnica Kamil Barczentewicz. The winery bears the name of one of the stars of the Polish wine industry. When visiting, you should also not forget about Winnica Kazimierskie Wzgórza with excellent infrastructure to host even the most demanding wine tourists.
Other spots here and there
Polish wine country has a lot more to offer than our short enumeration. You will find gems and surprises in all the voivodeships of Poland. You can taste Polish wines from as exotic continental climate dens as Podlasie (Winnica Korol), Podkarpacie (literally tens of visit-worthy vineyards!), or Lublin (Winnica Sienkiewicz). Even the cold Kaszubia of the North has a wine spot hidden among the impenetrable forests and lakes – it’s called the Kania Lodge.
Ask wine guides from VeloWino about wine experiences around main Polish airports. The company serves wine tourism in five languages in the whole winemaking “wild East” of Poland.
What to taste and do on a wine tour?
Polish cuisine is famous for cabbage and pork-based dishes. Poles don’t shy away from vegetables, mushrooms, and pickles, which can send any sommelier running around for acidity and wild tastes. To my mind, Polish dishes should go with Polish orange wine.
Should you happen to join the pleasures of cuisine and wine while seated in a restaurant in Krakow, do not hesitate to order a months-long-macerated example from Lesser Poland (e.g. Tyton from Winnica Kresy). Should it be a more hip place, you will certainly be invited to natural and biodynamic wines. Then, it is the kingdom of wineries such as Wieliczka, Kosmos, Nizio Naturals, or Miłosz.
A wine tour, whether organized or self-guided, will most certainly take you straight to the exact place where the vines grow (unlike many tours in Europe), where the wine is made (lovely little home garages!), and where you can unite in song around a bonfire or a fireplace. There will be places for weddings, business parties, or long walks, all provided by Polish vineyards and wine tour operators.
Wineries in Poland. A private choice.
For those willing to discover wines of Poland, white and red, and naturally the post-revolution orange ones, I composed a list of 7 places not to miss. Here I go.
- Winnica Wieliczka, nearby Krakow: a biodynamic, visitor-open heaven.
- Winnica Moderna, nearby Wrocław: try alpaca walks, lavender fields, and tart rieslings.
- Winnica Stara Winna Góra, nearby Zielona Góra: a wine spa in a stylish manner
- Winnica Nadwiślańska, nearby Sandomierz: an unforgettable view of the Wisła River.
- Winnica Kamil Barczentewicz, nearby Kazimierz Dolny: a ride in a landrover to one of the best prospering Polish vineyards.
- Winnica Dom Charbielin, nearby Opole: a large producer, magnificent bike infrastructure, and careful winemaking.
- Winnica Widokowa, nearby Krosno: you’ll never forget the view of the Carpathians after a quick glass at the mountains-facing terrace.
Wine-tasting tours in big cities. No need to travel around!
But let’s assume your visit to Poland is too brief for a tour of all the breathtaking landscapes. You prefer to stay in a city and engage in its pulsating nightlife. You will easily find tour companies that organize a tour of wine bars with a perfect storytelling introduction to Polish wine.
Krakow wine-tasting tours have gained a reputation and plenty of Tripadvisor ratings while wine-tasting experiences at a vineyard can be enjoyed within an hour’s drive from the city.
However, Warsaw will limit you to wine bars, with the only Winnica Dwórzno available within the range of 50 kilometers. Then again Wroclaw is made up of tens of vineyards right at the city gates. Use your Internet skills cleverly in searches and the world of local wines will open in any large Polish city of your current stay. Do not hesitate to ask for wine choices from Poland at a restaurant. They all know it is turning into a good business and will usually cherish a relationship with one local vineyard or two.
Best wine to take in your hand luggage and boast to friends about
I won’t be able to decisively tell who wins the battle for the top bottle of wine from Poland but let’s venture into estimations. For top wines look to: Winnica Turnau, Winnica Jakubów, Winnica Kamil Barczentewicz, Winnica Wieliczka, and Winnica Miłosz. They rarely let down, year by year, and have some interesting projects going on annually.
Talking about projects. And design. You’ll be surprised at how good some labels of Polish wines are. Creative, witty, full of wordplay and art. This is exactly the benefit of a tradition-free market.
Polish wine gives a plethora of choices and is only getting better!
Whether you’re in for a sparkling riesling (Winnica Aris), a drinkable hybrid grape red (Winnica Słońce i Wiatr), or a zesty orange (Nizio Naturals), in Poland you’ll be spoilt for choices. And the general number of vineyards, no more than 600, will keep it comprehensive and memorizable.
In most of the places you’ll choose to visit, private vineyard sightseeing and wine tasting will be available. The owner will be happy to share winemaking stories and anecdotes. This is exactly the main advantage of wine tourism in Poland – you’re almost guaranteed to meet the owner-vintner.
As vineyards crop up in generally rising numbers in the Vistula country, Polish wine is also entering a stage of being perfected over tens of already bottled years. Starting with virtually no experience and few Western enology courses finished, Polish winemakers have been able to experiment and find their ways, unrestricted by law after 2011. Their wine IS getting better year by year. You can have a perfect probe on numerous wine festivals across the country, to name Zielona Góra and Sandomierz only.
An invitation for wine tourists
Many wine-tasting experiences in Poland are led by the same person who created the wine. They’ll be able to devote some of their time to you, a rare luxury in bigger wineries across France and Italy. You’ll hear all the details of unique hybrid grape varieties (just to hear their perfectly foreign names raises curiosity!), stories from fighting the frost, and hordes of grape-hungry starlings.
Poland is a perfect blend of hospitality and a very very young wine industry. It may not be like that forever, as Polish wine labels are trending among consumers and many of them decide to start their own wine enterprises.
If you’re aiming to become an expert in Polish wine, let me share one secret. There is a fun and informative podcast by two Polish wine gurus, Maciej Nowicki and Michał Sobieszuk, the “Radio Polskie Wino”. And who knows what you can do to the Polish-language recording with all the AI tools! You can indeed listen to it in your language.
Frequently Asked Questions
I know there’s no way of stopping you from booking flights to Krakow for a Polish wine tour, so I thought you might also like to have a few basic questions answered.
When should I visit Polish vineyards?
Beware, it can get cold outside the May-October period. And the vineyards will not be full of greenery. The best time to come: the summit of the summer. July and August, right after veraison.
Is wine tourism popular in Poland? Will I get support?
Expect winery owners to be used to curious visitors. A very large part of their budget stems from wine enthusiasts and they remain very open to conversation. Plus, there are companies like VeloWino that offer free help and paid tours in the whole country. Independent or touring in a group, you’ll find something for every taste.
How much is a bottle of Polish wine?
Expect between 40 and 150 Polish zloty, i.e. maximum 50 EURO.
Can I stay overnight at the wineries?
There are a few places where the owner has thought to build an agriturismo as well. Think of Winnca Cantina, Winny Dworek, Winnica Nad Jarem, Winnica Płochockich, Winnica Sztukówka, and plenty more.
Will I have to learn Polish?
Hmmm…yes, it’s worth a try. Both for the labels and for simple communication with the owners. Should you prefer to stick to English or your mother tongue, there is no simpler way than to hire a wine guide or a guide-interpreter in one of the larger cities of Poland.
On the wine route!
By way of summary, I wanted to quote Jancis Robinson, who has accompanied the development of wine in Poland from the onset.
Even the most optimistic Polish wine lovers admit that it is probably only about a million consumers, most of them city dwellers, out of the country’s total population of more than 38 million who are responsible for the country’s wine boom. But they certainly could not be keener. The global educator the Wine & Spirit Education Trust works with no fewer than four wine schools in Poland.
See the article Poland’s growing wine culture by Jancis Robinson
That’s a wow. And an opinion from 2017 to let your imagination start working quicker than the clock.
See you in Poland, Friends!
