Winnica Silesian

The estate sits in the Sudeten foothills south-west of Wrocław, in Poland's mildest wine region. Its 10.5 hectares run down south and south-east slopes toward a stream, on weathered granite with loess on the lower rows. Three parcels carry most of the wine: 3.2 hectares of Riesling, 2.8 of Pinot Noir and 1.5 of Roter Riesling.

The farming is in conversion to organic. Granite drains fast and gives little, so the vines stay modest and the berries stay small. The stream at the foot of the slope pulls cold air downhill on spring nights, which in a frost year is the difference between a crop and no crop. Roter Riesling, a red-berried form of Riesling made here as a white, gives a broader, slightly spicier wine than its neighbour.

Everything is picked by hand. Fermentation is with native yeast, in steel for most of the whites and in old oak for the rest, and nothing is hurried into bottle. The wines are lean and long, with acidity that carries them for years. We import three: a Riesling, a Roter Riesling and a Pinot Noir.