Top 100 white wines of Belgium
Discover the top 100 best white wines of Belgium as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the white wines that are popular of Belgium and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Belgium
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.
Discover the grape variety: Pinot blanc
Pinot Blanc is a grape variety that originated in Burgundy, mutated from Pinot Gris. Today, it is grown in Alsace where it is called klevner when blended with auxerrois. The continental climate, with its cold winters and hot summers, is particularly suited to pinot blanc. It is resistant to frost in winter and in summer, the roots draw the minerals it needs from the warm soil. Its bunches are made up of small berries with thick skins and melting pulp that produce fruity, spicy wines, balanced between acidity and alcohol. pinot blanc is also used for crémants and sparkling wines. Pinot Blanc is also used for Crémant and sparkling wines. It is widely grown in Italy, where it covers almost 7,000 hectares, and is also found in Germany, Austria, Canada and South Africa.
Food and wine pairing with a white wine of Belgium
white wines from the region of Belgium go well with generally quite well with dishes of pork, rich fish (salmon, tuna etc) or vegetarian such as recipes of alsatian sauerkraut, sublime salmon (stuffed salmon) or spinach and goat cheese quiche.
News from the vineyard of Belgium
Which countries drink the most wine? Ask Decanter
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 ...
Andrew Jefford: ‘2021 has been the year of all the miseries’
How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that. He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries. None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the fou ...
Champagne: Getting ready for 2050
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 ...