An afternoon at the vineyard

An adventure trip in your own country, that was today. In South Limburg, Netherlands some small vineyards are alive and kicking. I visited one of these pioneers, Vineyard Fromberg, the tour was hosted by Carmen Sommers-Wiertz .

A little history lesson
The viticulture in Limburg was reintroduced in the ’80’s of the last century. Reintroduced because up to the time of Napoleon II, the wine was very normal in these parts. The protection Napoleon III offered to wine-growing in France and years later created great phylloxera epidemic that destroyed vineyards throughout Europe, ensured that disappeared viticulture in Limburg 100%. The changes, but now even grow explosively in the Netherlands in recent decades in farming and the shift of the southern climate in our region, initially did the wine only in Limburg.

Fromberg
The slope on which the vineyards of the winery are Fromberg can be found in eastern South Limburg. Paul Wiertz a traditional farmer came of age, planted some vinesv on the slope in 1991, along with his son, daughter Carmen and son. Advised by the Wine Academy in the  Geisenheim, Germany. The first years of the vineyard they planted the varieties Müller-Thurgau, Auxerrois. Nowadays also grown there are Bacchus, Reichensteiner, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Dornfelder and Monarch.

Fromberg consists of a three-hectare vineyard on a slope and is the only hillside vineyard in the Netherlands that is fully oriented to the south. Moreover, it is the highest vineyard in the Netherlands. The slope angle, about 20%,  is almost equal to the ideal angle at which the vine thrives best. The soil consists of a mineral-rich top layer mixed with Holocene gravel on a subsoil of mineral-rich limestone (marl), where easy to reach the roots of our vines. The substrate consists of the older, and therefore harder kind of marl. That makes the grape must work hard to get the minerals it contains record. Which in turn provides strong vines with grapes that offer powerful pronounced wines.

After some wine tasting my conclusion is they do have some honest, mineral, pure wines. Quite out of the ordinary, but in a way I would say, quite Dutch. But in a good way!