Thanks to the nice weather, compared to other European vintners, Dutch vintners turned a record year in 2023. Also, surprisingly, more and more vineyards are being added in our country.
Text: Fela de Wit | Image: Unsplash.com
Based on figures from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland), industry association VNWP reports that over 1.7 million bottles of wine were produced on Dutch soil last year. That is a growth of as much as 30 per cent compared to the previous year.
The first quarter of 2023 was warm and because there was little night frost, larger bunches developed. The summer months saw a lot of rain, resulting in a lot of mould. As the third quarter actually had a lot of sunshine hours again, this produced a record harvest.
Climate change
The wine grape is doing well in the Netherlands. The warmer weather means more and more vineyards are being added. In 2022, it was 275 hectares, now 302 hectares. Most vineyards are in Limburg and Gelderland.
Of all the types of wine produced in our country, a whopping 76 per cent are white wines. Of these, 14 per cent are sparkling. Three-quarters of winegrowers take care of processing the grape harvest themselves, while the remainder sell their harvest to other winegrowers or makers.
Globally, it was not so good
2023 was actually a bad year for wine worldwide, according to the VNWP. Farmers in southern Europe, in particular, were plagued by extreme weather. Southern hemisphere harvests were also disappointing. Globally, 2023 wine production came in at its lowest level in 60 years.
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