From the vinyeard Jesuit's Court      
and discussion of winemaking experiences 

The year 2001 was very slow to start: only in May did we see the plants burgeoning!

The cows looked on:

Furthernore, the nights were cold. So only mid June did we see some hesitant flowering,
as you can see on the picture - look below - to the right for 3 budding grapes.

At that point in time, we thought this would be a difficult, mediocre and late year. But lo and behold:
somewhere around mid-July, a warm-to-hot summer weather desended over our regions, and
suddenly things were looking bright. Even to the point that the ripening of the grapes started around 31
July, day on which we took the following picture  of ourJoffre grapes:

Notice also that the leaves are green and healthy! For the first time in 5 years, we were able to ban all
traces of MILDEW from our 600 plants. That was possible by alternating spraying exercises with
a systemic (Topaz) and then a contact (copper sulfate) product! 

Yet, there is and was another danger lurking from the sky: birds-in-search-of-juicy fruit. Until now we
used to hang large blue nets around the plants - but that is a heavy chore. This year, we tried another
trick: aluminium foliage cut into 6 shiny silver beads. The picture below, taken on 25 August,
shows how this silver foliage is hanging on a number of poles - which indeed seems to keep birds away.

The deepest blue colour is found in the "early Loon" grapes - a hybrid of Pinot Noir.
That grape has a long standing: already in 1690, it is mentioned in documents pertaining to
viticulture around the city of Borgloon (hence "Loon"). You can see a sample below:

When shall we harvest? If things continue to develop the way they do as of August 27,
we can expect to pluck grapes in the third week of September. Wait, pray and see! 

Until July 5, things looked good on the vineyard: no abundant growth, but healthy vines and grapes. Two days after we left for a long vacation, it started raining heavlily for about 4 weeks! The consequences are an easy guess: the dreadful "white disease" of mildew! 6 of our 9 rows have thus been touched, and all growth has been stopped.

We had already decided to replace the major part of the white grapes by a new brand coming out of one of the most mildew-affected countries in the world: Germany. The name is SIRIUS.

We had already 10 plants from last year, and they are the exception to the rule! One item of consolation: the disease is widespread in our region and in Northern France. Bad luck for these professionals!

In 1989, I decided to start a vineyard. I had been involved in wine tasting and (amateur) wine making since about 1979. The father of our son-in-law Wim had a piece of land which he did not get a permit for to build a house on, so, knowing about my interest, he offered it to me "and then you give me a few bottles of your home-made wine"!

The piece of land, situated at about half a mile from our house, was certainly suited for the purpose, at least from the geographical point of view: oriented towards the south-east, with a down slope of 4%. Yet, the soil was (and is) composed of heavy lime, yet I knew that one can grow wine there on the condition that you use the right type of "understem", like SO4. Furthermore, there had been a long tradition of viticulture in and around Leuven - which is shown in the name of a number of streets, like the "Winepress street" and the "Vineyard lane". It was almost certain that it all started in an abbey called "Keizersberg" or "Royal mountain".

In the spring of 1989 I started planting RED grape plants, of 4 different types; Pinot Noir, Loonse Vroege (Early Loon, a hybrid imported around 1680), Maréchal Joffre (hybrid of Pinot Noir),DornFelder (German origin). A total of 300 plants, in rows of 100 metres. I harvested already that year, making 30 litres of red wine. A well-known sommelier received a bottle, and called me: "this looks promising!" In the next year, I planted four more rows of 300 white grape types, four in all: Müller Thurgau, Optima, Ortega and Steinfelder Riesling (apt for colder zones, from the Moselle region). Two years later, I harvested a first white wine.

I should not tell the insiders that all this is a lot of work! And I had little time... That situation lasted until I took a prepension. I really started working hard last year. The big problem in our type of region is a double one: sunshine is not always available, and the rain causes the well-known disease of MILDEW! Two years ago, on a July mo(u)rning, the vineyard looked as if it had been snowing that night! So, I harvested not a single grape.. I used classic types of remedies (the famous "Bordeaux blue copper soup"), but with little result. This year, I finally overcame the problem, upon the advice of my German vintner-friend Werner Keber (from the Nahe area).

The present year 1999 has been irregular. We had a mild winter, but then April was rather cold, so the plants started later than usual. May was rather beautiful, but the fact was that especially the white grapes did not produce many blossoms - and I noticed that this was the case elsewhere as well. I decided to try to keep as much blossom as we could get, and to spray regularly with two types of anti-mildew products: one "contact" from Bayer, and one system called Topass from CIBA. The red grapes had similar problems as the white ones, with the exception of the JOFFRE grapes (2 1/2 rows) which were blooming abundantly. Mildew did not appear until late June. But it remained restricted to only parts of some plants. The general impression of the vineyard looks better than in any year befote - as the pictures above, taken in July 1999 show. We have had a very sunny month of July, so the red grapes are starting to take color - two weeks earlier than usual. If things keep going this way, harvest will also be earlier - somewhere around sept. 20.

Let's wait and see.

Q: I would like to know other ways of fighting mildew, and also ways of improving blossoming.

This year, after a very sunny month of August plus the first half of September, we have been able to harvest 3 WEEKS EARLIER than usual! The whites did not yield much - due to seasonal factors and restricted blossoming - but the reds were abundant: healthy, lots of sugar, fruity deep red juice. We have started fermentation now, and are hopefully waiting for the rest of the vinification process. Process which led to a small but qualitatively satisfying set of about 120 bottles.

OLD YEAST IN NEW VESSELS...

For about five years now, we've been using a special type of yeast developed in California, called "killer". It has two advantages:

1) It allows you to apply 'cold fermentation' (in this case from 8 degrees Celsius onwards - there are now yeasts that start already from 4 degrees!). Cold fermentation guarantees a better reteinment of natural odors and flavors

2) It "kills" nocive elements (my german vintner did an experiment even with soap and oil, and the wine was pure!)

Out of parsimony, this year I used left-over yeast from last year... But O God, the result was a stinky wine, with the odor of rotten eggs! The handbooks told me: throw it away, nothing can be done!

But I applied an old technique: levelling off, and putting the wine in a very cold surrounding. After three level operations, the wine came out fresh and pure !

Except for one demijohn. I then started surfing the web for advice. A winemaker from Oregon told me:

"there are 3 possible solutions:

- level off frequently

- use purifying means like special clay from Canada

- add 1 mg/10 liters of copper sulfur

If all that does not work, throw it out!"

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