Latvia

Latvia sits at the northern edge of where wine is even possible. The growing season is short, the winters are brutal, and the grape is always a gamble. But the orchards, the meadows, and the river valleys offer something else entirely — rhubarb with electric acidity, Baltic apples with a tartness no southern fruit can replicate, wild herbs shaped by cold and light.

The makers who work with this material don't pretend to be winemakers. They ferment what the land actually gives them, and build structure from there. The results are sharp, honest, and unmistakably northern.

Abavas

Abavas

A family winery on the Abava river, turning the Latvian landscape — rhubarb, quince, verbena, lavender — into sparkling drinks with the structure and intention of wine.

It started with a honeymoon in Tuscany. Mārtiņš and Liene Barkāns visited small family wineries in 2007 and came home to Latvia with a plan — to do the same thing on the banks of the Abava river.

The climate had other ideas. Standard wine grapes don't reliably survive Baltic winters, so the winery built its identity around what actually grows here: rhubarb, apples, berries, herbs. Each year Mārtiņš grows four to five tonnes of rhubarb himself, buying another 45 locally — turning it into a sparkling drink with the kind of sharp, clean acidity that makes you think it must be wine. Over the years, the small family project grew into Latvia's best-known winery.

The sparkling teas came from the same instinct — quince with verbena, rhubarb with lavender. Not imitations of anything. Just the Baltic landscape, fermented and bottled with care.

SPARKLING TEA RHUBARB–LAVENDER

SPARKLING TEA RHUBARB–LAVENDER

SPARKLING TEA RHUBARB–LAVENDER

Abavas, Latvia

€12 €16/L