Belgium makes some seriously good wines

Belgium is world famous, and rightly so, for the quality and variety of the beers it produces.

But the country has never been a big hitter in the wine stakes.

But all that could be about to change.

Belgium now has some extremely respectable vineyards producing some very decent plonk.

And none more so than Wijnkasteel Genoels-Elderen, near the Belgian-Dutch border at Reimst.

Cellar master Joyce Kékkö-van Rennes studied wine growing in France and in her hands the vineyard's Chardonnay and Pinot noir vines from Burgundy are now producing grapes that compare very favourably with any grown in the motherland.

Genoels-Elderen has a long history of vine growing. The first vineyards were established in the area by the Romans and the region was well-known for wine production until the Napoleonic times, when the so called Little Ice-age made the climate too cold.

Fortunately the weather has been steadily warming up ever since and according to Kékkö-van Rennes, temperatures are now roughly comparable to those in Burgundy a hundred years ago.

Genoels-Elderen was the first vineyard in Belgium to receive the right to use
l'Appellation d'Origin Contrôlée (AOC) label.

The estate owned by Joyce Kékkö-van Rennes' family has 16 hectares of vineyards and the first Chardonnays were planted in the beginning of the 1990s.

Gathering the grapes

Harvesting is one of the busiest periods in a vineyard.

"We hire about 50 seasonal workers every year to pick the grapes. It is all done manually in order to preserve the best quality of the grapes. A couple of years ago we tried harvesting machines on half of the production, but the wines made out of those grapes were not up to our standards," Kékkö-van Rennes explains.

Pickers at the vineyard are paid by the hour rather than by the kilo, a move designed to ensure they concentrate on quality instead of quantity.

"We don't start the harvest before October, so that the grapes can gather extra sweetness from the last sunny days of the autumn and grow thicker skins during the cold nights. This gives the wines a very fruity, yet softly acidic taste," explains the wine maker.

"We don't use fertilisers, because we want the roots to grow deep into the soil and bring up the best flavours. Neither do we use chemical pesticides," she continues.

There have been vines here since Roman times

Genoels-Elderen makes three different white wines, one red and two sparkling varieties.

In addition to wines, they also make their own Belgian grappa.

This is distilled to about 68 percent, then stored in oak barrels for several years to let the alcohol concentration drop naturally.

"It takes a long time, but we don't want to mix it with water like many producers do. Our grappa cellar will soon hold one hundred barrels and the first grappa should be ready to drink in a couple of years," Kékkö-van Rennes says.

"Belgians often hesitate to try out their own domestic wines. I think exports are likely to prove our most important market. At the moment we are exporting to France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Great Britain and Germany. Tom Stevens is also going to include our wine in his “Top 100 most exciting wines in the world” list, which should make our name more familiar," the wine expert adds.

Wijnkasteel Genoels-Elderen is open to the public.

You can see the vineyards, cellars and production facilities and – naturally – check whether the wines are to your taste.

Most of the production is sold directly to the 20,000 visitors who come to admire the vineyards every year, but loyal clients also include many restaurants.

In Brussels Genoels-Elderen wines are available at Rob's supermarket on the Boulevard de Woluwe and at Migs' World Wines on the Chausee de Charleroi near Place Stephanie.

Belgium produced approximately 200,000 bottles of wine this year.

The country's best vineyards are in Hagueland, Haspengouw and Sambre-et-Meuse, regions which all now have AOC status.

More information:

http://www.vignes.be

Wijnkasteel Genoels-Elderen
Kasteelstraat 9, Riemst 3770
http://www.wijnkasteel.com
Joyce Kékkö-van Rennes tel. 012 39 13 49

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Belgium, wine, leisure