The Belgian market is one of the most successful in France/bordeaux">Bordeaux, and has also played a key role in dictating the 1855 classifications of the Médoc and Graves. Many of the great estates in Bordeaux are - or have been - owned by Belgian wine merchants. For example, one branch of the Flemish Thienpoint family (Jacques) owns Le Pin, while another (his cousin Alexandre) owns Vieux Château Certan.
Despite this strong focus on cereal-based drinks, Belgium also has a number of vineyards.
Its annual wine production would easily fit into a single storage Tank in one of the largest vineyards in Australia or the United States, and has not yet been exported on any scale. Most of the wine produced in Belgium is made by individuals for home consumption.
The white Grape varieties preferred by Belgian winemakers are Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from across the border in France, and Kerner, Optima and Muller-Thurgau from neighbouring Germany. The few red wines produced are from a handful of Pinot Noir and Dornfelder grapes.
The meeting point of the Moselle and Rhine, two of Europe's great wine rivers, Lies just 80 kilometres east of Belgium's eastern border. It is a very close point, but on the other side of the Ardennes.
The Moselle forms the eastern border of Luxembourg, Belgium's small neighbour, whose per capita wine production is much higher. The capital of the Champagne region, Reims, is at the same distance from the southern border of Belgium.
Bordeaux wine sales to the US reached a new record in 2021, jumping 67% to €349m ($390m), the Bordeaux wine council (CIVB) announced this week. A freeze on additional import tariffs and buyers’ thirst for highly-rated recent vintages helped Bordeaux to a ‘spectacular recovery’ in terms of shipments to the US, it said. Exports rose by 24% in volume last year to 247,000 hectolitres, equivalent to 33 million bottles. While reds dominate, the US has also become the biggest market for Bordeaux white ...
The arrival of Covid and the ensuing lockdown restrictions had serious repercussions in the hospitality sector and severely disrupted supply chains, particularly in the drinks sector. Champagne, one of the world’s most recognisable and exported wines, was severely hit by travelling restrictions – which initially impacted the luxury sector Champagne dominates – and the closing of on-trade outlets. The 2020 slump As a result, in 2020, Champagne sales plummeted; a 10% decrease year-on-year in March ...
The US still comes top on the list of which countries drink the most wine overall, according to to preliminary figures released this week by the International Organisation of Vine & Wine (OIV). Wine consumption in the US crept up by 0.7% in 2021, to 33.1 million hectolitres (3.31 billion litres), the OIV said in a report on the state of the industry. World wine consumption grew by the same margin, to hit 236 million hectolitres (mhl), or 23.6bn litres, although trends varied by nation. That ...
