Vignoble du Chateau de Bousval

If you have dreams of planting a new vineyard you will be enthralled by the story and work at Chateau de Bousval which is documented on their website. Owner and nature lover Michel Verhaeghe de Naeyer’s rural soul was consumed by the desire to produce wine from his Walloon fields.  The principal mission involves an environmentally friendly vision: “To produce a quality wine in a quality environment, a wine which comes from neither Burgundy, Alsace, or Austria; it is a wine from the terroir of Bousval.”He knows that a wine doesn’t just taste of its native land; it radiates the way in which it has been cultivated. 

In November 2012 to envisage a new life through viticulture the soil was left to rest for the following two years. In July 2013 the first major works were started transporting 5,000 tons of limestone and laying 2,500 meters or drains to a depth of 2.5 metres to manage the hydraulics of the future vineyard and prevent the vines from being submerged. A ditch dug upstream provides protection from erosion and heaving rainwater. Planting of Chardonnay vines in 2014 and 2015 both by machine and by hand was followed by the creation of trellises.The first harvest was in 2016 and the new winery was opened by 2019. New plantings followed with organic certification in 2021. Biodynamic conversion was also begun in that year. International recognition has come from the 2020 vintage as the wines are now more widely available with awards from Decanter, Gault Millau and press attention from writers such as Jancis Robinson MW and James Suckling.  

This is not a heritage wine; it is a burgeoning wine. It is the result of an alchemy between the young vine and the Belgian sun, myriad flora and fauna, and the micro-organisms found in the Bousval soil.