Luxembourg, Vilnius, a Woman and Winemaking in Poland’s “North Pole”

Northern Europe is not an easy place to make wine. Brewing beer may be simple, the article notes, but getting grapes to ripen is another matter. Even so, winemaking enthusiasts have never been entirely absent from the region.

In neighboring Latvia, Sabile’s Wine Hill stands as a landmark of northern viticulture. Guinness World Records officially lists it as the world’s northernmost vineyard. Its historical roots reach back to the 14th to 16th centuries, and wine was pressed there in the 17th century on the estates of Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland and Semigallia.

At Lithuania’s latitudes and longitudes, the 20th century favored wines made from fruit and berries. The 21st century, however, has brought a growing number of enthusiasts to grape winemaking. The first small-winemaker production license appeared in Lithuania in 2011. The country now has about a dozen wine farms, along with several associations and societies representing winemakers and grape growers.

Their representatives take part in Wine Days events and wine competitions. Lithuania entered the list of cold-climate winemaking countries in 2021, and the country received its first mention in The Oxford Companion to Wine in 2023.