Dom Bliskowice - Johanniter Ultra 2016

Taka reviews a Polish orange wine with considerable polish

Poland doesn’t get the respect that it deserves, either with food or wine. Ignorance too often clouds the landscape. I was recently on a train to Warsaw eavesdropping as four Brits struggled to come up with a single dish other than vodka.

And when it comes to Polish wine, it’s fair to say it does not rank highly on most lists. That’s if it appears at all. But I am here to say we should drink more Polish wine. It can be bloody good. In conversation with one of the sommeliers at Bez Gwiazdek (Warsaw), I learned that in 2005, Poland had five known winemakers. Today, there are over 120, so it's a good time to start exploring.

The wines of Dom Bliskowice, based in eastern Poland (between Krakow and Warsaw, same latitude as Dresden), are a great place to start. The owners Lech Mill and Maciej Sondij are Warsaw architects, who also have a restaurant and a wine importing business focused on artisanal wine. So I was not surprised to find that they had made an orange wine.

Vinification

The wine is …