FIRST JOURNEYS - EASTERN EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 05 OF 17
A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY
Heritage Gin takes me to Szczecin, in north-west Poland, the capital of Western Pomerania — the next stop on my virtual journey. A place with lost cities, witches, magnolias and, of all things, Pomeranian dogs.
Every region seems to have its Atlantis. Pomerania has Vineta, although even the name comes with a question mark. The prosperous medieval trading centre around today's Wolin appears in old chronicles under several names, including Jumne and Julin, while later versions brought in Vineta — the result of a rather complicated mixture of names and copying. The legend of Vineta as a drowned city came later. By the early modern period, the name had become attached to stories of a fabulously rich city swallowed by the sea because of the wickedness and excess of its inhabitants. As for Vineta itself, nobody has found it yet.
Then there's Sydonia von Borcke, a Pomeranian noblewoman whose story has rather more twists than your average witch tale. Legend says she fell in love with Duke Ernst Ludwig, who promised to marry her before choosing another bride. Sydonia was said to have responded by cursing his family, predicting that the Griffin dynasty would die out. Several dukes subsequently died without heirs, and when the last male Griffin, Bogislaw XIV, died in 1637, the curse suddenly looked rather convincing.
The real story was considerably less romantic. Sydonia became caught up in family disputes, conflicts at the convent where she lived and the witch hunts of the period. She was accused of using magic to cause illness and death and, after torture, confessed to witchcraft. She was executed in Szczecin in 1620.
The story behind Heritage is rather less dramatic, although it is just as rooted in the place!
Husband and wife team, Marcin and Aleksandra Czajkiewicz are both Szczecin-born. Aleksandra is a microbiologist and master distiller who is responsible for the recipe, botanicals and production. Marcin is an archaeologist and gin enthusiast who brings considerable experience from working at Pernod Ricard on marketing and both Polish and global vodka brands. Much like I love to do, they spent several years travelling to and discovering new distilleries, building up their knowledge before creating their own brand. No - that doesn't mean I'm aiming to do that - it's way more fun just writing the stories I uncover!
Their family history reaches back to the Kresy, the former eastern borderlands of Poland, with ancestors from territories that are now Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Their families eventually arrived in Szczecin, where their own story begins.
When they decided to make a gin in 2020, they didn't have to look far for inspiration. Magnolia was an obvious choice as the flower has become closely associated with Szczecin and its springtime streets and gardens. Heritage calls it a symbol of their hometown.
Heritage Magnolia Gin contains 19 mainly regional botanicals, with magnolia flowers at the heart of the recipe. Italian juniper provides the foundation, while pine shoots, apples, blackcurrants and cranberries bring other elements of the Polish landscape into the bottle.
Magnolia was not simply a pretty flower to put on a label. It became a way of putting Szczecin itself into the gin.
Heritage Baltic Gin takes the journey a little further, from the streets of Szczecin towards the Baltic.
Sea buckthorn isn't uniquely Baltic, but Heritage has given it a rather lovely local nickname: “sea olives.” The berries are macerated for 30 days which Heritage says allows the fruit to release its range of aromas.
The recipe is another collection of mainly natural, regional botanicals, with juniper, sea buckthorn, sweet cherry, meadowsweet, hyssop, chamomile and citrus. Then there's rye.
Some of the botanicals used in Heritage are macerated for 24 hours in neutral Polish rye spirit before distillation. Rye has a long history across northern and eastern Europe, and in Poland its most familiar appearance is probably on the table rather than behind the bar - the dark, dense rye breads that remain an important part of Polish food culture.
So there is a small piece of Polish history hiding in the production method. Rye that could have become bread has instead found its way into the gin.
Heritage is very much a small operation. Recipes are developed in Szczecin, while the gin is produced at an artisan distillery in Poland in a Kothe copper alembic. Batches are limited to around 250–350 bottles, and each bottle is hand-numbered.
The gin isn't chill-filtered, so add ice, water or tonic and it can louche, developing a natural haze as aromatic compounds come out of solution.
The label is another little piece of the story. It combines botanical elements inspired by the Kresy, where the founders' families originated, with the ornate façades and stained-glass windows of Szczecin's historic tenements.
There is something slightly Art Deco about the geometry and symmetry of it, although Foxtrot Design Studio, who created the identity and packaging, describe the inspiration more broadly as the eclectic architecture of their hometown. Look closely at the front of the bottle and you'll spot a clever detail: the decorative lines form a large H, with the word Heritage itself becoming the crossbar.
There is a small personal connection to Britain too. Jolanta at United Drinks is from Szczecin — her hometown and the home of Heritage Gin. It seems rather fitting that she is the person bringing these bottles from her own corner of Poland to the UK.*
Perhaps that is the nicest thing about a travel story: sometimes you don't have to go very far to find a connection to home.
From the legends of Pomerania to the shores of the Baltic, Heritage Gin bottles a family story rooted in Szczecin.
*Heritage Gin is available in the UK from United Drinks.
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."