Recently I visited Gord Opleeuw, a little town in the Belgian Haspengouw, located between Tongeren and St. Truiden at North of Borgloon. Winery Colemont bought this vineyard which is completely surrounded by walls and renamed it as Clos-d- leem Opleeuw. The walls on the South side from the vineyard are climatically the same as the Bourgogne. After a soil analyse the winery decided to use 5 different species from the Chardonnay.

After he first grubbed the vineyard from sick and not productive wine plants he started in 1993 to make wine. Despite the excellent vintage in 2001 he did the same in 2002. The 1 hectare vineyard which is planted with 4500 wine plants results in a Crop yield of 3000 bottles, which results in 4000 litre of wine. Do you wonder if this is profitable? 0.88 litres a plant.

As every passionate winery Sir Colement says, wine is a natural product and it is important that the dark fruit is completely in balance and harmony, it also needs to have the right dosage. It gives a health stress to cut out some grapes (Canopy), it makes sure the other grapes get enough sunlight- and hours for the physiological maturity. After this, the wine undergoes a fermentation in a malotalic way (lactic fermentation where malic acid is converted in lactic and carbonated) and stack on an 1 year old Alier keg from J. François.

He tries to apply as much biological work from Nicolas (winery in Loire) if the weather condition permits this. He is advised by Rayas(Chateauneuf-du-Pape), Roullot (Meursault) and Leroy (Romanée Conti). Sir Colement(teacher Hotelschool) arose his love for wine when the publication of the wine maker of Hubrecht Duiker was published he drink good wines from his childhood(a age of 12 years). He intents to produce wines to find out the much as possible to achievement the best possible.

Chardonnay-Clos-d-Opleeuw 2006 Bouquet: light white fruit(peach, pear) and light mealy. Taste: gently launched, fresh exotic fruit nuances, medium intensity, light almond, fine dry mineral finish.

Regards,
Noël Vanwittenbergh
Sommelier Ciel Bleu