The small and beautifully located vineyards in the Podkarpackie region produce fine-tasting wines. Red, rosé and white, refreshing in taste, with an intense aroma, they win awards in international competitions. The Podkarpackie region is one of the major wine-producing areas in Poland, with 160 vineyards comprising a total area of 150 hectares. This is an excellent destination for those into enotourism.
The route leads to dozens of cellars with wine aging in bottles. These are new facilities, but the traditions of wine making in the Podkarpackie region are a thousand years old. Hundreds of years ago, Benedictine and Cistercian monks used to grow vine in monastery vineyards. Then Polish people fell in love with Hungarian wines for several centuries. A new era of Polish winemaking began in the 1980s in the Podkarpackie region, near Jasło, when Roman Myśliwiec started the Golesz vineyard. He did not only make wine from existing varieties of grapes but over time he also bred a new vine cultivar named Jutrzenka.
Today, this white variety is often planted in Czech and Hungarian vineyards. Winemakers in the Podkarpackie region frequently use interspecific hybrid vines, as these grow well in the Polish climate. They are more resistant to diseases so they are suitable for organic cultivation, which is a great advantage. The white cultivars include Hibernal, Bianca and Muskat Odesskij, and the red varieties include Regent and Rondo. These are just examples. The less popular grape varieties include French Chardonnay and German Riesling. You can taste wine made from all these varieties during the International Wine Days in Jasło.
During a trip to the Podkarpackie region you should taste the local wines, and visit the picturesque vineyards located on the southern slopes around Jasło, Rzeszów and Dębica, in the vicinity of Jarosław and Przemyśl. After a good dinner at an agro-tourism farm you can sit under a tree and enjoy life and the summertime. As the author of ‘The Philosophy of Wine’ Béla Hamvas wrote: ‘If you once try pike in butter with tomato salad and root bitter, you will faster forget all the paintings in the Louvre than this experience...’.
The vineyards in the Podkarpackie region are waiting for you with the fine tasting wine!