Daddy’s day out in the Belgian wineries

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Over the years my passion for wine has grown tremendously. The person who has had a great part in this is my dad. For many years (when he still had his own restaurant) we used to have our yearly trip to Vinitaly (Verona) or trips to Italy to visit wineries. Now that he has retired it is me taking him to visit wineries 🙂

Back in the day he used to take me to wineries in Italy, today I try to show him the rest of the world 🙂 🙂 but why should we always travel far when we have very top level wineries only a short drive away??? I invited my dad to visit some Belgian wine producers in ‘Haspengouw’. Haspengouw or Hesbaye as it seems to be called in English is mostly known in Belgium for its fruit yards. Especially during blooming season (spring time) it is a very nice region to visit… beautiful flowers as far as the eyes can see. Only for people (like myself) with hay fever a double dose of allergy medicine is required 🙂 🙂

It must be said that last few years the amount of professional wineries in Belgium has grown, especially in the Southern and Eastern part of Belgium (with a few exceptions in other parts of Belgium). The Belgian wine production mainly focusses on white wine and bubbles, although there are also a few (not a lot) wineries that produce some very nice reds (one of my favorites is Chateau Bon Baron). The success of this growth we thank first of all to the high quality products most of the wineries make, but next to that the Belgian Wines bar in Antwerp played its part too The Belgian Wines bar is a wine bar were only wines produced in Belgium are served and can be bought. Resulting in Belgian wines finding their way into more people’s homes and on wine lists in many restaurant AND we being more proud of local products!!

A winery that raised the ‘high quality’ bar very high for the others is Clos d’Opleeuw. Clos d’Opleeuw aka the life work of Peter Colemont is the only Belgian wine included in the Sotheby’s lists, being reviewed in the NY times and a Jancis Robinson favorite… So in other words a winery that I had to show my dad. (I already visited it once in 2013) Knowing the winery has only 1ha of land, around 2000 vines and a yearly production of 35Hl, it is like a shimmer in comparison with wineries where they produces thousands of bottles… but the quality of the end product is just like at the big boys. During blind tastings Peter’s Chardonnay is often taken for top Burgundy wine.

On its 1ha piece of land Clos d’Opleeuw only produces 2 types of wine, a Chardonnay (98% of their production) and a very small production of Pinot Noire.

The vineyard, as the name says, lays within walls (clos) creating a microclimate and a perfect climate to grow the grapes (or fruit in general) in the cold Belgian weather. When Peter Colemont purchased the piece of land back in the ‘90s it was far from the beautiful vineyard it is today, a wilderness with a few cherry trees in it. In a few words Peter had to start from scratch and build up everything by himself. Something he still does today as he does all the work in and around the vineyard himself. When you taste his younger Chardonnay’s you’ll clearly notice notes of oak. Yet there is more than enough freshness and fruitiness. In addition, we taste aromas of butter, vanilla, toast and a variation of white and yellow fruit. The concentration, fullness with a beautiful aftertaste… a joy as big as hearing Peter talking with so much passion about this wines! If you ever have the chance to try one of his wines please do so, you won’t regret it!!

After a wonderful lunch at my favorite Limburg wine restaurant Mondevino we set sail to the producer of the drink I started my lunch with…

Domain Cuvelier is specialized in sparkling wines. The difference between this winery and the previous is that owner Yves Cuvelier comes from a long line of fruit growers and his (together with his brother Patrick who I was told boss on the land and Yves in the Cellar) main job is still fruit grower. The wine making is a hobby that got out of hand 🙂 🙂 . For making the wine the brothers work together with Guy Geunis (who has been in the business for 25 years and is a role model for Yves) and Rik Schuers from the close by vineyard Optimbulles that I visited a couple of years ago. Just to be clear, both wineries have their own way of working, the only thing they share are the material, infrastructure and knowledge .

It was in the year 2000 Domain Cuvelier planted its first vines of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Later Pinot Meunier and Grüner Veltliner followed. It surprised me that they planted Grüner Veltliner as I read somewhere that in Germany they don’t use this grape a lot because it’s too wet for the grape kind and Belgium (and especially where the vineyard is located) is not that far from Germany… but then again you read many things 😉

The majority of the harvest is destined for their CuBiz, a traditional brut that consists of the classic trilogy (70% chardonnay, 20% pinot noir and 10% pinot meunier). It was only in 2015 that they started experimenting more with the Grüner Veltliner that let to their BizTro (mono cepage and first Grüner Veltliner in Belgium). The top of the bill is their BizJoe, a method traditional extra brut, blanc de noirs! You could also tell that Yves was very proud of his BizJoe 🙂 not he is not proud of the Cubiz, but the extra sparkle when talking about BizJoe gave it away.

When you have to compare their sparkling wines I would say that Cubiz is the ‘easy to drink’ (my dad’s favorite) one and ‘BizJoe’ the more complex’ one (had my preference) and the BizTro somewhere in between 🙂 The BizJoe is very delicate with hinds of toasted bread and full flavored. The BizTro is a dry wine with a high acidity level and a light vegetal character through the short skin contact it had. For the Cubiz it is the chardonnay that gives it elegance and finesse, a beautiful golden yellow color and rich apple flavors. The Pinot Noir provides body and structure, the Pinot Meunier adds the round and fruity touch. All special on their own and add Yves’ drive and passion to that and you have a winner.

With this festive note we ended our day and my dad was more excited than ever (he was really impressed by the drive both winemakers had and the story they had to tell).

Mission completed I’d say!

Limburg hospitality at its best

May 31, 2016May 31, 2016 / dolcevitaspinelli / Leave a comment

Ever since the birth of my baby girl my life has changed in so many ways. I prefer spending time with her above any other thing in this world!! As a result one of the changes that had to be made is going less out for dinner then before 🙂 I know it sometimes seems like I still go out very often, but in reality it is a lot less than before. If I had problems choosing before where to go, I can say it didn’t become easier now I go out less… Do I try something new or go to a place I’ve already been lots of times?A luxury problem, but still a problem ;-). For my birthday last week it was faith that brought back to a restaurant Mondevino I had been craving for to go back for 2 years (mainly because it’s quit distant from where I live). Why faith? To make a long story short, I won a voucher for a 5 course meal for 2 people 🙂 I never win something (definitely because I have too much love in my life), so it just had to be faith telling me something. My birthday also seemed like the perfect opportunity to use the voucher. Mondevino stands for the well-known Limburg hospitality, comfort, great food, great wines and for an evening never to forget (or afternoon if you go for lunch 😉 ) . I had also taken my precautions and found a little hotel close by… better safe than sorry!!

On a very sunny day like it had been that day, one just wants to sit outside! So we did… but only for the apero as in Belgium the sun has to shine quite a bit before you can really stay out all night. We started our night with (how else) local Belgian bubbles (Trilogie) from the Optimbulles winery accompanied by perfectly (thin) sliced dried ham and some olives and shrimp/curry based appetizer. All that followed was the perfect recipe for a wonderful evening great food paired with the perfect matching wines… As Kris (the owner) and his wife Agna know I’m a wine lover they took our pairing to another level (or my pairing as my wife didn’t want to drink/taste as much as me)….

The First dish from our menu was a revisited version of ‘vitello tonnato’. Tuna sauce combined veal, asparagus and roasted butternut. For the wine we started just outside of the traditional Burgundy (Côteaux Bourguign) region with a 2015 Sacy wine 🙂 (Sacy as in the grapes, not the word sassy 🙂 ) made at the Domaine Gueguen. The Sacy grape is a grape ripens early, and produces light-colored wines low in acid and alcohol. A grape that had almost disappeared… if you found it was mostly in a blend from Crémant de Bourgogne. In the nose it does remind a bit of Sauvignon… but in the mouth it is fresher and les “full” or aromatic, but a very nice match with the delicate flavors of the dish.

Sacy wine

Catfish with white cabbage, cockles and fresh herbs…for this dish Kris had foreseen some “spielerei”: 2 glasses of wine and for me to find out which wines it were… n°1 didn’t tell me anything as it was pretty closed at the first sniff. N°2 was familiar, but as always from where do I remember it?? My first tip was that they were both from the same country, but from a different part of that country 🙂 🙂 After a while Kris finally pulled me out of my misery and revealed the wines… Both French, the first one a 2014 Grenach made by the Le Plan estate from the Côtes du Rhône regoin and the second a 2014 Chardonnay by Pascal Marchand from Burgundy.

Next the Duroc porc belly with brioche, mushrooms and radicchio…This dish was without doubt given to make me crave for the dish that followed which was a very succulent piece Solomillo “Duroc” meat perfectly cooked and still waters my mouth just by thinking of it. For these dishes some Italian wines seemed to do the trick 🙂 The first a 2013 Refosco from the Terre di Ger (Friuli Region) and the second wine a 2007 Guidalberto (red Tuscan) from the Tenuta San Guido (better known as the winery that makes Sassicaia – one of the Super Tuscans). Although The Guidalberto was a very gentle , delicate and tannic wine that I usually prefer drinking, I did prefer the Refosco with the Solomillo meat… In general a Refosco is quite powerful and tannic, with a deep violet color and a slight bitterness and mostly gets blended with a merlot to soften it. But in this case the 100% Refosco is actually fruitier/juicier and a nice marriage with the dish.

Strawberries with lime, vanilla and ‘Napoleon’ ice sorbet. Napoleon is a in 1912 invented Antwerp piece of candy with a lemon taste, it is hard at the outside and a soft very very lemony and inside (historic Belgian piece of candy). From this piece of candy the Mondevino made a sorbet 🙂 combined with the sweetness of the vanilla and strawberries it was a very refreshing dessert! Kris paired with a legendary HungarianTokaji dessert wine made by the The Royal Tokaji Wine Company. The official name of the wine is Hàrslevelü Late Harvest pajzos Tokaij … not to sweet, just right 🙂 with a rich aroma with hints of peach and ripe apple and a juicy finish.

For me a dish is perfect when it has deep flavors that blow you away. Flavors that only can get obtained when a chef cooks with love and patience. A perfect example would be a Belgian stew that has cooked long and slow and rested overnight is a whole different story than one quickly made and immediately served… Only the first one will have to first one will have the flavors it is supposed to have!! To come back to the Mondevino dishes, they all had these deep flavors… which basically shows that the chef knows what he’s doing and he’s doing it with passion that he wants share with as many people possible(passionate people are always best)… resulting in me also eating it with lots passion as every bite invites for a second bite…

Very satisfied we turned to our hotel for a good night of sleep (without having to wake-up early as our baby girl was at my mom’s 🙂 ).

Thanks again Kris and Agna for making my birthday dinner so wonderful and see you soon! I am also sooo in love with your Berkel meatslicer 🙂

A trip to little Burgundy the sequel

September 9, 2013 / dolcevitaspinelli / 1 Comment

From all the tasting we did at clos d’opleeuw’s vineyard (that you could read about in my previous blopost) a person becomes very hungry 🙂 luckily Kris Lismont is owner from a restaurant called “Mondevino”. Mondevino might not immediately ring a bell, but maybe restaurant “Ambrozijn” might sound more familiar. Restaurant Ambrozijn was the restaurant Kris Lismont had with his brother Johan, but earlier this year the brothers decided to go their own way. Johan will be focusing on teaching young cooks all tips and tricks. Kris on the other hand continued with the restaurant, but with a slightly different approach and concept where the focus will be mostly on wine, this resulted in Mondevino.

I got instant feeling of happiness when entering Mondevino, not only because of the nice selection of wines you immediately see (I saw some beauties I wouldn’t mind trying), but also because of the very warm welcome (aka Limburg hospitality) Kris Lismont and his wife give you!

To make the lunch even more fun Kris decided to do a blind wine tasting. So with every course we were given 3 different glasses of wine from which we had to guess the country they were from and which was the best pairing with the dish. I know it might be they did it especially for us, but you should try it sometimes! Finding the country was obviously the most difficult, or at least it was for me 🙂 although sometimes the tastes seemed familiar, but I just couldn’t figure it out. At least everything after our glass of Champagne 🙂 Kris bought this bottle (Henri Giraud) during his trip to the Champagne region and wasn’t sure how it would be, I say it was good

The first dish they served us was salmon with tepid potato slices and chive cream. The wines we got with it (first without knowing the kinds) were a 2012 Chateau Simon Graves Blanc (FR), 2009 Pinot Bianco (IT) and a 2012 El Hada (Verdejo – ES). It is strange that now that they gave us the choice one really starts drinking/tasting different. I mean normally you just drink whatever they give you and don’t really think if it really works together with the dish, but this time when having to choose between those 3 you start to think which taste goes best together… Me personally I don’t know the technical details behind it, but at some point you just feel/taste it that the combination is right! Cant’ explain it, it just is like that 🙂 I’m also glad my taste buds where nearly as good as the ones from the pros. I didn’t guess the countries, but I did guess which one was best with the dish and the winner was the Verdejo. (Everybody agreed on this one)

The next round was the same, but with red wines in combination with some Lomo Duroc with Blackwell sauce. This dish needed some strong, but not too strong though. They did chose to go for the same countries as with the white wines, but again we only knew that afterwards. The wines we had were a 2009 Chateau Argadens (FR), a 2010 Les Crestes (ES) and a 2011 Dolcetto d’Alba (IT). It was the Dolcetto d’Alba that fitted best with the Lomo Duroc… it didn’t overpower the taste of the food, but was still powerful enough… and it might be a coincidence that Dolcetto is one of my preferred wines.

We finished our meal with a Trifle of red fruit from the area, this time no wine as we still had to visit 2 more vineyards and the line has to be drawn somewhere right? 😉

To summarize this lunch experience, it was not only a delicious meal, but also very educational one. I will definitely be back, if only already for Kris’ enthusiasm!

Definitely a nice spot to stop during your trip(s) in the beautiful hills of Haspengouw!

Address: Tongersesteenweg 30, B-3840 Borgloon

Website: http://www.mondevino.be/

Phone n° : +32 (0) 12 74 72 31

Opening hours:

Wed – Fri: 10.30h – 23h

Sat: 17h – 23h

Sun: 11.30h – 17h

To be continued with more about my trip and visits to vineyards in Borgloon…

A trip to little Burgundy

September 4, 2013October 14, 2014 / dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

It might seem that I’m exploring a lot of the eastern part of Belgium (Limburg) lately, but they just have so many great things to explore :-). This time my trip east brought me a little town called Borgloon, which is a little town right in the heart of the Belgian Fruit region also known as “Haspengouw” (beautiful for cycling in spring). The red wires during this daytrip were top Belgian wines and 2010 best Belgian sommelier Kris Lismont.

I know Belgium is not known as a wine country, but I can say for a fact that the amount of winemakers making good and even great wine that can easily compete against the famous wine countries is getting bigger by the day! Thanks to Kris Lismont we were fortunate enough to visit a 3 of them with all the same goal putting Belgian wines on the map.

The first vineyard on our agenda is maybe to me the maker of the best Belgian white wine. I’m talking about the lifework (since 2000) of Peter Colemont aka Clos d’Opleeuw a vineyard from only 1hectare. Peter only makes Chardonnay (1 year in best quality oak barrels) wine from 5 chardonnay grape varieties. I must correct myself he also has a few Pinot Noire vines but the wine he makes from these grapes is for private use only, or at least until Peter finds the quality good enough for actually sharing it with the world (I tried it and have to say although it is still young it had a typical Pinot Noire taste to it). Back to Clos d’Opleeuw’s signature products their Chardonnay that during lots of blind tastings of well-known white wines is mistaking for a Burgundy wine… so that’s how good it is! Before I start speaking of the wine, maybe I should first tell you more about the person behind the vineyard. Peter Colemont is besides a very friendly and modest person also someone who knows what he wants and is not ashamed to say he consults well-known winemakers and wine experts to make sure he’ll make a TOP product. Peter even worked for a while in some well know vineyards in the Burgundy Wine region to fine-tune his knowledge on how to make wine. When we asked him who gave him the passion for making wine, he said without hesitation Jean Bellefroid who was a pioneer in making Belgian wine.

There are multiple reasons this wine is this wonderful 1^st of all because of the lime/loam soil in combination with the fact it goes downhill is perfect for the “drainage “of the water (and in Belgium there is a lot of rain 🙂 ). Just think of vines of Chateau Petrus, this also goes downhill. BTW when you see a mistletoe tree you immediately know the soil is lime/loam as this tree only grows on this type of soil. Secondly because of the fact it is a “Clos”, which is the French word for “closure” or “enclosed”, so basically this means it is a vineyard with walls around it used to protect the grapes from theft as well as improving the mesoclimate. The mesoclimate will be creating the perfect circumstance and environment for growing the grapes (or any other fruit you would like to grow). This is a “technique” used in lots of French regions for making wine. The last and maybe most important reason is Peter himself as he works with so much devotion, care and passion! There is a saying that says “everything you do yourself is done better” well this is Peter’s motto as he does do it all himself, he literally crawls on hands and knees between all his vines to check and take care of every branch. He could use a machine, but this would cut away too much.

Clos rijpingskamer

Peter’s passion and high quality product didn’t stay unnoticed as people like Jancis Robinson tasted the wine and started spreading the word ( article) and on top of that Clos d’opleeuw’s chardonnay can also be found on the wine list of the 3 Belgian 3 Michelin star awarded restaurants and Oud Sluis! Lots of people would start flying and start to feel full of themselves, but not Peter he keeps his 2 feet on the ground :-).

I did already know Clos d’Opleeuw for a few years, but it was not until 2 months ago (it might be 3 months) that I tried my first glass thanks to Tom Ieven from restaurant Ardent :-). I also wasn’t sad when I could taste it again, but this time in company of the winemaker himself, we tried the 2010 and 2011. The 2007 would be Peter’s personal favorite, at this moment that is.

Anyhow, to make a long story short(er) you should definitely try a glass (or bottle) of Clos d’Opleeuw when you have the chance!!! I know it might be difficult to find it as the production is not enormous (3000bottles a year)… and therefore very quickly sold out but you won’t regret it if you get hold of it.

Stay tuned for more about the 2 other vineyards we visited and the lunch we had with of course wine as main topic….

Spinelli's Dolce Vita

My passion for life

Mondevino

Daddy’s day out in the Belgian wineries

Limburg hospitality at its best

A trip to little Burgundy the sequel

A trip to little Burgundy