Climate French fries, chocolates, sparkling wine: More and more wine in Belgium
Belgian beer is known worldwide - will Belgian wine soon be too? Viticulture is booming in this small country.
27.12.2024, 06:51
SDA
When the Crémant de Wallonie from the Chant d'Éole winery won the gold medal in the international sparkling wine category at a competition in 2019, wine connoisseurs were wide-eyed. "A delicious wine," says Marc Declerck, head of the gourmet guide brand "Gault&Millau" in Belgium about the wine, which also beat hundreds of different champagnes from France.
Belgium's vines benefit from climate change
A few decades ago, viticulture in the country would not have been possible on the scale it is today, says Declerck. But unlike southern European farmers, winegrowers in Belgium could take advantage of the average rise in temperatures due to climate change.
Researchers from France write in a study that in Europe, the areas north of the 46th parallel - the line on which Bern, the Austrian town of Sölden and the French town of Poitiers lie - generally benefit from global warming. New wine regions are expected to expand northwards, especially along the Atlantic.
Not everyone benefits from global warming
According to the researchers, the suitable area in traditional wine-growing regions will decrease significantly by the end of the century due to climate change. This is because: "The combination of rising temperatures and lower rainfall will lead to severe droughts in southern Iberia, in Mediterranean France and Spain, in the Po Valley, in the coastal regions of Italy, on the Balkan Peninsula and in the southwest of the Black Sea," say the scientists.
In France, for example, winegrowers are struggling: water stress in the south, damage caused by heavy rainfall and heat waves and losses due to night frost in spring have repeatedly made themselves felt in recent years. In Italy, the harvest has been reduced due to the climatic conditions, and winegrowers in Spain are also suffering from increasingly hot summers, longer periods of drought and extreme weather conditions. Many wineries are reacting and focusing on more sustainable cultivation methods and more heat-resistant grape varieties, among other things.
Land of sparkling wine
Even in Belgium, not everything is great when it comes to the effects of climate change, says Jelle Steel from the Entre Deux Monts winery in West Flanders: Because weather patterns are more unpredictable and uneven, you have to pay a lot more attention to the vineyard. In general, however, viticulture is becoming easier. The figures also show this. According to the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs, more wine was produced in the kingdom in 2023 than ever before. The number of winegrowers and cultivated hectares also grew.
Above all, the proximity to the sea makes wine from Belgium special, says Steel. "We have that sea breeze that most other wine regions with a cool climate don't have." According to expert Declerck, Belgium is particularly strong in sparkling wines due to its northern climate. According to him, almost half of all wines produced here are sparkling. Another 35 percent are white wines, the rest are red or rosé wines. This goes well with Belgian fries: The greasy fries are best accompanied by something with acidity or bubbles, says Steel - a sparkling or white wine, for example.
The same soil in the south as in Champagne
According to experts, the quality of grape juice from the land between the Ardennes and the North Sea has improved considerably over the past twenty years. The second edition of the "Gault&Millau" wine guide for Germany's western neighbor was published in June.
The soil also contributes to the success: The Le Chant d'Eole vineyard with its award-winning Cremant, for example, is located on the same limestone vein as the Champagne region in France. The white chalky soil, which stores moisture in winter - during the wettest months - and releases it again in summer - when the vines need it most - is characteristic of their products, says spokeswoman Amélie Wuillaume. Should the French be worried? Not at all, says Declerck. "We love great champagne and we believe that nothing will change!" It's much more an "and" than an "or".
