Ep 2337 Sławomir Komiński | Wine, Food & Travel with Marc Millon

One thing that I'd always tell to my suppliers every time that the model of wine consumption in Poland is different than in Italy and it's closely related in the context of food culture we eat completely differently. We don't have so many opportunities to drink wine with food during the day. And therefore, what kind of wine is the average consumer looking for wines with lower acidity and we have pinot grigio, wines with lotanians, and we have Primitivo, and wines just for enjoy, just for a pleasure without the meal, and we have the prosecco. We can't offended by it or fight it, it's just the way it is. Fascinating people with stories to share, fabulous wines, and the best local foods to accompany them, and beautiful places to discover and visit. All of this and more on wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Millen, on the Italian wine podcast. Join me for a new episode every Tuesday. Welcome to wine, food, and travel with me, Mark Millen, on Italian wine podcast. Today, I'm traveling to a country I've never been to before, but long to visit Poland, and to the city of Polsnan, to meet my guest and good friend, Swamenski, who imports wine, has various wine bars and businesses there that is a wine educator. I last saw Slovakia a few weeks ago in Verona earlier in the year in Terino, so it's good to catch up again. Chow, How are you? And thanks for being my guest today. Hello, Mark. I'm absolutely fine. Thank you for having me here. As you know, I'm the huge fan of Italian wine podcast and huge fan of your part of Italian wine podcast. So I'm very proud and very happy to be here. Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Now, as you know, we've talked about Poland, and you've described where you live, and it's somewhere I'm really hoping to visit this year. So for our listeners who are located all around the world, can you tell us a little bit about where you live about Posnan so that we can gain a picture of of your world? Yeah. I'm based in Posnan. Ponan is on the western side of Poland. We are on the way and almost just in the middle between the Berlin and Warsaw. Postland maybe it's not a well known as a touristic city as Crackle, for example, but Thanks to our strategic location. Posnan has been for centuries and still is an important trade center on the east west road. For decades, it was known for its international affairs. And now it's I can say business oriented city with many well known companies, Polish companies, but also the famous international companies. And Postyne is also a very strong academic center with many universities and very large student community, which is good from the wine business point of view. It sounds like a beautiful place. I looked up some and saw some pictures of beautiful renaissance buildings. And tell me about, tell me about the billy goats in the market square. We call it old markets in our dialogue. We can say it's a great place. We can also feel the Italian influence there because, the architect was, from Italy and his beautiful, beautiful place with a lots of restaurants, also with the gardens outside, you need to visit, Mark. You will be more than welcome here. I'm looking forward to visiting, as you know. Now I read that every day some billy goats are let out into the market square. Is that true? Yeah. It's a legend. Then two goats, are fighting together and every day on the noon and the top of the tower. They meet again and again and they're fighting together twelve times they beat they had. And so it's lots of theories. There are lots of, kids. It's one of the most important, tourist attraction in our city. Okay. And that's in the main square every day. Well, I look forward to seeing that when I visit you. Slava, tell me about your own background. Have you always worked in wine and hospitality? No. I've got the background, from, the marketing. I can say. I've worked for many years in, mobile marketing agency and the IT business, as well for many years. But in the meantime, the wine was my passion, my huge passion, my first fascination took place in France in Champagne. I was a student. It was in the nineteen ninety eight. Poland was just opening up to the west, and at that time with my current wife, then the girlfriend. We visited the Benedict countries in France and everything there fascinated us. We visited Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, but, kilometers of corridors curved in the limestone rocks with thousands of bottles of champagne maturing were some kind of revelation for me and that was the beginning my passion of for wines started. In that time, Polent was still like a wine desert, only a poor quality wines in the supermarket, some cheap wines from Hungary or Bulgaria, no wine education, zero wine courses, I had to go to Warsaw for my first, wine course. It was in the meat of, two thousands. And that's how I started to enter to the world of wine and step by step, discovering new countries, new regions, new operations, and you know, mark my academic background because I'm so sociologist means that always want to discover what is beneath the surface, what is hidden around the corner. And that's why every time I open a bottle of wine and ask myself a question, why is this wine like this? Why is different than another? What is the context of this wine? I always also been interested in history and geography. I love maps and both of these contexts are, as you know, the great importance for discovering the world of wines. And, in two thousand and nine, I decided to combine my passion for wine also with, business, and that's how it all started. Well, that's amazing. And I'm just thinking about this time because, a lot of our listeners won't remember when Europe was divided, and, you know, this great opening up of what we referred to as Eastern Europe, the Eastern European countries. Was must have been such a feeling of freedom for you as a young person with your then girlfriend now wife exploring Benelux and France and feeling that you could do things at a previous generation couldn't do. That must have been a very exciting moment for you. Yeah. It really was. We were student. We were poor. I earned the money for the street during two months of students work during the student's holiday. So at the end of this trip, we had money. We observed the people who are sitting in the table in the brussels with the bottle of wine on each table with the big jar of muscles and we promise and I promised my girlfriend now wife that we will come back to Brussels for this, amazing experience with the muscles and the white wines of the table. And we really and we really did it, but that time was really great. Everything was new for us and everything fascinated us. It was, like, a white piece of paper. Yes. Exactly. That's amazing. And I'm just thinking of, how exciting to be in those great cathedrals of wine underneath, you know, the streets of Ross, and Epe, when you visited the Grand Mar champagne houses to see those kilometers and kilometers of caves dug into the chalk. That must have been just magical. Yeah. It was magical. I was really impressed. And as I said, it was some like, kind of revelation for me, and that was the beginning, the first beginning, I can say. It's really interesting as well to say it was like having a blank sheet of paper because as you say, there was no established wine culture yet in Poland. As you say, the wines on offer were limited. I would imagine people drank beer or distillates And, in a way, you were entering into the world of wine and able to really bring wine to Poland, to your friends, to your family, but then as your business is developed to really introduce not just wine, but the culture of wine. Tell us about how your businesses evolved and what your businesses are now. Yeah. You're absolutely right, Mark. You know, my business is above all the teamwork. Of course, every business needs a leader, someone who will define the vision and goals, but, even the most beautiful vision and the most precisely defined goals means nothing if there is no team that will translate it into every everyday work, and I'm extremely proud that, for over the past fifteen years of running my wine business in Poland, I have had and still have a great people who co create this business with me. I can say, we operate in extremely difficult conditions, and only thanks to the support of my team, the mind mind, which is the name of, my company. I know that it's not grammatically correct in English, but, I love my brand and it can continue to develop. Together with my team, we evaluate the wines that we want to take to our selection. I think that this is also the key to our success. We meet regularly. We discuss wines. We analyze them. Not only that we like it or not, but also from the business point of view, how it will works with our customers to whom we can go with this specific selection and this is how we build the offer, the, our selection together. And I'm proud of this part of our job because selection of our wines, it's a very well balanced, I can say. It's like a good wines. We don't have very well known wine brands. We rather look for some hidden little known treasures precisely those from around the corner. And I'm really proud of that. And, currently, we have about fifty suppliers from various European countries, mainly from Italy, of course, but also from Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Poland as well because Poland now becomes, most important when countries. And also some wines from Georgia and some labels from New World, but, Italian wines is around, thirty, thirty five percent of our portfolio. Okay. So a a big chunk of the portfolio. I know you have a great love of Italian wines. And you have, various venues. So are they wine bars? Primarily, is that how would you describe? Or are you selling bottles to retail customers as well? Yeah. And, Since the beginning, we are focused on the retail markets. And at this moment, I've got four specialist wine stores, the aerotechs, we can say. Two of them are also with the wine bars and with the tasting rooms. And last year, we have also started our offer to the Horeca sector. And at this moment, we cooperate with a few restaurants in Post nine, mainly Italian restaurants, but not only. We've got also the sushi bar in our for for you. And we are supplies for them. We are not only deliver the wines, but we also teach their staff, the waiter, and the waitress in the restaurant how to talk about wines. And we use our retail experience also to teach the staff in the restaurants, how to talk about wines, how to offer wines, how to describe the wines to the consumers, and, how to serve the wines in the restaurants because we also got this kind of experiences. Okay. So it's a comprehensive service you're really supplying. I'm interested in learning more about where your love of Italy in Italian wine came from. I know you're passionate about Italian wine. I've, of course, met you through via and we've tasted many wines together in Italy. And I know you have a deep knowledge and a great passion and love for Italy and Italian wines, of course. Yes. It's absolutely true, Mark. But, my love for Italy and Italian wines it wasn't lost as a first sight. It's a rather this feeling mature step by step as I discovered more regions, more cities and more places in Italy. You know Poland is a very homogeneous country. Of course, we have a differences between the eastern and western part. We have some original dialects, but it's not as great a diversity as in Italy. The average poll who has never been into Italy or has visited Rome once or Venice looks at Italy for the prism of his experiences, the Polish experiences, and only when you immerse yourself deeply in Italy, you start to discover this fascinating diversity. Of course, we talk about the historical roots, the geographically determinated. But if you look at Italy from the homogeneous perspective, we basically have several countries in the one country And this is so fascinating. And that was when I discover Italy, my first trip to Italy was to Amelia Romania and I was so disappointed. Flat land almost the same like in Poland, the same trees, I asked where are the palm trees? I was thinking that I will eat a great seafood, but it was the food was the same like in Poland almost, of course. And later when I discovered the other parts, the other regions, I realize how this country is amazing and, how the people are different. You know, mark the concept of company Lismo, what is so important in Italy for centuries course. This attachment to small localities. Yes. It's it's very, very important. It's very important. And we in Poland where primarily I can say indoctrinated into national patriotism. The self government is a concept that we can talk about since the fall of communism. So since the beginning of nineteenth in the twelfth century, in Italy, almost every single commune or village has his own identity, which emphasizes and cultivates. So discovering these Italian differences in every aspect of life, culture, architecture, climate, people's mentality. And of course, cuisine and wine gives a great joy. And, it's a wonderful and fascinating journey. And for me, it's a never ending story. Well, that's really interesting. And also to differentiate that mentality between a a national outlook of a country and a country like Italy, as you say, where there's such attachment to local local places to the point of reflecting even in the foods and wines that an Italian chooses to enjoy and drink the foods and wines often from their own towns. You decided to become an Italian wine Ambassador to to study to become an Italian wine Ambassador, and that's how we met tell us about that journey and what that's given to you and the importance of being part of this extraordinary community. Yeah. It's true. The VA community is something absolutely extraordinary. And I met a lot of great people, and I can say now that thanks to VIA, when I disappeared in every corner of the world, if I've got the mobile phone and I chat on the WhatsApp guys, I need some help. I know that I'm sure that, wherever I am, somebody from VIA community will help me. And this is absolutely great. But, also for, you know, the via, especially to be an Italian wine ambassador, especially in Italy, gives a lots of advantages. And then open many doors. It's, rises my prestige as a person, but also for my company, sometimes I laughing that, now when I'm negotiate with some new potential Italian suppliers when I show them the my business card when I, and I've got the information, and I'm a Vine Italian wine ambassadors, they won't play with me the, you know, normally Italian game during the the negotiation because, Uh-huh. I know what we are talking about, when we are talking about the wine business in Italy. Yes. Yes. It's true. It is a great community, and it's a very supportive community, as you say, globally. I'm always amazed at, the generosity and the knowledge of the Italian one ambassadors all around the world. And and it's great when we then have a chance to meet up many of us together at somewhere like Vini today. Also, it's, Rice, the authority for us. And also I think it's important for my customers and for the students for my wine courses, and I can say that I passed the exam, which is extremely difficult. And this gives the permission to be not only the ambassador, but also the educator which is also an important part of my job. Yes. Actually, I wanted to discuss that aspect of your job because I know that you love teaching. You love teaching in particularly about Italian wine, but I'm interested as well if, you know, you're saying that in Poland, the concept of Italy is as a as a single nation. I think it's a similar often in the UK. Maybe not so much now because people have traveled more, but, you know, we have an idea of Italy as a single nation when as you say there's so many regions, but within each region, as such, precise identities. I'm just interested in how Polish people have become interested in Italy and in Italian wine and how you can bring that to them, both through education, through tastings, through fun events, and the sort of things you do to introduce, not just the wines themselves, but I think one thing I've found with you, swabek, it's it's the fun of wine. It's the enjoyment of wine. It's having a glass and drinking in that Italian way, where wine is something that makes life better. Yes. It's absolutely true. First of all, I need to say that's, poles love Italy. And everything Italian. As a country, we have many things in the common with Italy. Of course, lots of Italian restaurants, but also Polish people loves Italian cuisine. And of course, Italian wines are number one. And, we have a very interesting phenomenon when we are talking about the Italian wines in Poland, we call them 3P in the wine industry. Do you know Mark what the Italian 3P might be? Well, I'm thinking prossecco, pinot grigio, and I'm thinking of that third p. Yeah. Pinot grigio. No. It's Primitivo, but you are absolutely right. Yeah. Prosecco, pinot grigio, and primitive. Oh, primitive. Of course. Yeah. Okay. Yep. I can understand that. You know, it's not far off in the UK as well. Yeah. I can imagine that, we are Northern barbarian in the context of, of Italian food and wine culture. Of course it's shade. Yes. But, one thing that I always tell to my suppliers every time that the model of wine consumption in Poland, but I think that also in England and in Nordic country is different than in Italy. And it's closely related in the context of food culture. We eat completely differently. Starting with the time of the day approaches for breakfast, for example. My mom always said that, breakfast is the most important meal during the whole day. In Poland, it's, absolutely unacceptable for example, to drink a half a bottle of wine during the lunch, and return to the office. It's, absolutely unacceptable. And also we don't eat such large dinners as Italian do. So we don't have so many opportunities to drink wine with food during the day. And therefore what kind of wine is the average consumer looking for wines with lower acidity and we have pinot grigio wines with low tannins and we have primitivo. And wines just for enjoy, just for a pleasure without a meal, and we have the prosecco. We can't offend it by it or fight it. It's just the way it is so we can educate, we can give the alternatives. We can show the possibilities. But you know, Mark, I'm a big fan of, nebbiolo lover. But knowing this context, you realize how big a challenge is for me to offer a nebula to my customers. Of course, I try and I don't intend to stop in this effort. And that's why I have three producers from Pullia and two suppliers of Proseco, but I've got also in my selection and the biola from two Piamonte producers. And I also want to offer more ambitious Italian wines, but we are in a completely different context. That's really interesting to hear. You know, I think, as you say, it's not dissimilar in the UK and as much as we don't have such a culture of wine and food, we'll often drink wine outside of meals, whereas in in Italy wine and food are inextricably linked. But I'm interested to know as well some of the other wines that you're having success with. I went around with you, and we tasted and I know of your deep love of Nebula, then in all its forms, from Piamonte. But what about from Southern Italy, for example? I know you work with producers there and have loves, love of wine from all over Italy. Just tell us a few of your favorites that you really want to introduce people to not just in Poland, but wine lovers anywhere in the world. I mentioned that in Poland, the number one wine is primitivo. From Italy. Absolutely. It's a number one. In my shops a few years ago, it was the same. But, thanks to my suppliers and, work with my team and also my fascinating on other grapes. From Italy. Do you know Mark which wines are best sellers now in my wine shops? Well, no. I I don't know that, but I'm interested to know because I'm sure that you sell a lot of the three ps, but I have a feeling that you've introduced wines that are the sort of lines you and I would share and enjoy greatly together, and I look forward to doing that with you when I come to visit. So tell us what you're selling, what your customers are enjoying. Yeah. So at this moment, my number one, when we are talking about the grape variety, It's a sousa maniello, and the second one is narrow Detroit. So still in Pulia, but certainly not well known varieties at all. That must be difficult to educate people to explain people to get people to try a lot wine like sousa Mandela or indeed a casta del Monte from Nero D. Troy. Yes. And I'm very proud of that. That's, thanks to our effort, the taste of our customers evolve and they are open and they trust us that when we offer them a different wines and we always say, you know, it's from the same region. It's from the same climate as primitivo, but it's a little bit lighter. It's more interesting. It's the same approach for the winemaking, but it's a different style of wines. And thanks to that, our customers discovered the cover Nero Detroita to discover Nero Dawala from Sicily and other wines. And it's a journey. And also our customers, I think that they like that we take them to this journey. And, thanks to our knowledge and knowledge of our team, we can show them something different, something which is a bit more interesting in the same climates in the same style, but they can discover thanks to us more and more interesting minds. And I'm happy on that. Yeah. I think that that's very important. I'm finding here as well, Swavec, that in the UK, people now are yearning to try new flavors to experiment with wines with names they've never heard of before more than previously, you know, when the world of wine was becoming smaller with just a handful of international grape varieties that you could find where or grape varieties were brands rather than precise expressions of place. And I think that's important, but you do need somebody that the wine drinker can trust to explain that because otherwise, you know, it's easier to fall back on the familiar. So that's where wine education and and that personal service that you were saying you and your colleagues can offer is so vitally important. Yes. Absolutely. And, this is the most important thing. The trust, the honestly, and, I'm always teach my team, and I always looking on my customers with the long term relations. As well as with my suppliers. So for many of them, I worked since the beginning and trust is the absolutely the fundamental of, of anything in the long term business. Yeah. Absolutely. I wanna return to the subject of food and in particular to Polish food, which I don't know at all. And I'm just wondering if you could, say, give us some classic pairings of Italian wines that pair wonderfully with dishes that are classically Polish and that, you know, every visitor to Poland will want to try and should try delicious foods that also pair well with Italian wines. It's a great it's a great topic. You know, Mark Polish cuisine, it's, rather fatty. The dominant meat here is pork. Historically, however, a lots of game, wild birds, and forest product were used in the Polish cuisine. And as you know, Mark, this gives us great opportunities to combine the Polish cuisine with Italian wines. One of the most traditional Polish dish is called pierogi. A bit like Italian ravioli, but thicker, more fatty with cabbage and mushrooms, or meat inside, and it pairs beautiful with sangiovese. Especially county classic or or with not so much oak influence, but good acidity, and notes of spices, herbs, and a bit of earthiness which breaks the fattiness of the dog and meat. It's and also goes well with the mushrooms. It's a perfect. One of my favorite pairing is a regional dish from my region from posnanian, from our region. It's a duck with dumplings and the red cabbage. And duck is most often baked in oven with apples, which gives the dish acidity but also a little sweet notes, and it goes perfectly with Balpolicello, and this dish and this pairing is absolute classic for me. Another example is a pork chop our famous dish. It's cooked the same way as a but not with veal but with pork and it goes great with verdicchio or with so have a classic especially one that's, it's a few years old, which, still have great acidity, but also enough structure and texture to carry this dish. It's absolutely perfect pairing. So for some ideas and for wine lovers, Polish cuisine, and Italian wines, it's absolutely great environment to make some experiment and to make some great pairing. Those are three fabulous pairing suggestions of foods that I look forward to trying when I come to visit you. They sound great, and I like the precision of your wine pairings. Now I know Poland is also famous for beautiful pastries and desserts is there a dessert or pastry that would pair with a beautiful passito or dessert wine? Yeah. It's absolutely, you know, the one of my favorites, dessert and pastry is a cheesecake. It's a traditional Polish dessert. We can say, and cheesecake in our way with the raisins also inside. It works perfectly with white Pacito as soave, or Vincent from Tuscany. It's great, but, I also love to pair our traditional chocolate cake with, it's also one of the classic, pairing. It's perfect. Beautiful. These are dishes we wouldn't have thought of going together, but it's really, exciting to hear how well Italian wine can translate with other cuisines like Polish into something quite magical. So that's quite exciting. So I have a final question. For those visiting poznan, as I hope to do later this year, what would you say people must see and do? Yeah. You know, Mark, what I heard here, most often from people from other countries who visit me, they always say, I'm shocked. I didn't expect that Poland is such a beautiful, friendly country that the infrastructure is so good. So many people speaks foreign languages that is so clean and so safe. People are very helpful here, especially for foreigners. And, we have an extremely rich history and beautiful places to visit. Of course, Crackle must be on the list and, warsaw Vronsk on the seaside. Postnan, of course, are wonderful vibrant European cities with delicious food made from high quality products from local small suppliers. I tell you honestly, Mark, that we have been, when I, for example, traveling all over Europe for many years. And, a few years ago, I had a polish complex, I can say. We felt a bit like second class citizens in Europe, but, I have to tell you that I don't feel that way at all anymore. Especially now when Poland has become a leader in economic growth. We are a very hardworking nation, and we have earned for our position of our self in Europe. And I'm proud of it. And, I, of course, invite all of our listeners, come and visit Poland guys. You will be very positively surprised. You will feel like home at home, and you will meet a great people. You will eat, great delicious food. So I hope, you will join our country. And, of course, you are more than welcome here in Poland. Well, thank you. That is a great invitation to all our listeners and knowing as well that in Poland, we will be able to enjoy not only wonderful Polish dishes, but also beautiful Italian wines to pair with them. So all they could spend great catching up with you again. I really enjoyed the times we spent together earlier this year, and I look forward to getting together with you again sometime soon and to sharing another glass of wine. Thank you so much for being my guest today. Thank you so much, Mark. It was a really, really pleasure and honor for me. And I hope that, you will visit us in the second part of this year to promote your book and, of course, to share the glass of wines and, you will be more than welcome here. I will take you to my best, rests around with our traditional Polish and Reginal cuisine And of course, we will drink, great Italian wines with this great food. So I hope to to see you, Mark, very soon. Nonvedo Laura. I can't wait. That's going to be, really fun. And I will just say for our UK listeners. There are flights. I there's a flight I can take directly from Bristol to Bosnia. So it's not difficult to reach, and I'm looking forward to that. So, Slovakia, have a great day. I know you've It's a busy time for you, but we'll meet soon and see you soon. We hope today's episode of Hawaiian Food and travel with me, Mark Millen, on the Italian Warren podcast, has transported you to somewhere special. Please remember to like, share, and subscribe wherever you get your pods. Likewise, you can visit us at Italian wine podcast dot com. Until next time, Chincin.