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Three medals for a Belgian Château
Jeanette van der Steen, cellar master of Château Bon Baron is over the moon with the fact that red wines of the ‘Acolon’ grape have won three medals at the ‘Concours Mondial 2009’, held in Valencia, Spain.
ACOLON 2005 won a gold medal
ACOLON 2006 won a silver medal
ACOLON 2007 won a gold medal
ACOLON is a dry red wine, which origins can be traced back to KEK FRANKOS, a Hungarian grape first mentioned around the 10th century AD.
ACOLON is, depending on its potential, ripened for one or two years on new French Oak in the cellars of Château Bon Baron.
ACOLON is a cépage of black grapes. For Belgium this is a new fruity red wine with great nobility. With its dark red colour, ACOLON is a spicy, harmonic, mildly tanninuous wine. Red and black fruits are found in the wine, such as raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and plums. Also because of the ageing on wood decent tones of pepper, paprika, eucalyptus, vanilla and oak are equally recognisable. Best served at a temperature of 18°C or slighly cooler when drank outside. Best accompanied with game, strong cheeses, cheese fondue, smoked or pickled meat and dark chocolate.
In the most beautiful part of the valley of the Meuse, near Profondeville in the Wallon region of Belgium, Jeanette, her husband Piotr and their children Kasper and Emiel cultivate the grapes of Château Bon Baron on various vineyards. For white wines, the grapes of the Müller Thurgau, Auxerrois, Muscat, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay varieties. For red wines the varieties of Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Précoce, Cabernet en ACOLON. The wide range of grape varieties and the methods of wine making have been chosen intentionally to offer a broad scale of wine and food combinations.
Thanks to growing interest and curiosity from neighbours, citizens and people afar and above all the culinary interest of the restaurants of Profondeville and neighbouring places, Château Bon Baron changed from making wines as a hobby to becoming professional wine makers after its first planting in 2003.
Thanks to the experience of Jeanette van der Steen and Piotr Strszeszewski, Château Bon Baron is co-operating with secondary schools, Hotel Management Schools and specialised agricultural schools to present an educational program for students. At the schools in biology classes, but also internships for wine making, vinification, logistics, sales and marketing. There are also close links between Château Bon Baron and the ‘Confréries’ (Brotherhoods) of Namur to improve the quality of Walloon wines in Belgium. Close communication with top restaurants in Profondeville and surroundings gives confidence and courage to keep improving wines for the future.
Château Bon Baron is one of the few vineyards in Northern Europe which has proven that the traditional vitis-vinifera grapes not only have the right of existence in Belgium, as it is shown in the very first historic notes of wine making in Profondeville in 1018 AD, but also make very good wines.
Château Bon Baron produces its wines organically. There are no pesticides, herbicides or insecticides being used. Château Bon Baron has two weather station installed in the vineyards. This helps to make a judgement of the current and the forecast weather giving as assessment of the eventual risks.
Alongside modern machinery and tractors to cultivate the soil, there is also personal attention for every single plant. Every plant is handled manually. This includes clipping, defoliating, releasing and binding up. Then there is a ‘green harvest’, where if necessary the plants will be halved, immature grapes will be removed and the entire harvest is done manually as well.
Our wine cellar is of the latest generation, there is a computerised membrane press, new oak wine barrels (barriques) in which the full production of red wines ripens in one to two years as well as the production of some fine white wines. The wines are, as much as possible, cleared and transferred through methods of pressure and gravitation. Rough manipulation such as pumping and filtering are being used as little as possible.
A couple of years ago, we came up with the plan to start a vineyard in the valley of the Meuse, near Profondeville which is in the beautiful Walloon region in Belgium, we took one firm decision.
From ‘good’ we want to go to ‘terrific’, from ‘tasteful’ to ‘culinary’ and from ‘acceptable’ to ‘spirited’ and ‘characteristic’
This means that we have to take into consideration the great diversity and mineralogy of the soil, the local climatologic and micro-climatologic information and our own personal diverse tastes.
Ecological principles, durable materials and careful handling of natural resources constantly change our views and enhance our passion for wine.
Fantasy, but also pragmatic thinking and a hint of romance are often the ways for us to make the perfect wine.
At the moment some of our wines have been given a certain standard with the Appellation Controlee 'Cote de Sambre et Meuse'. Our efforts have now been recognised with the achievement of winning some medals at the ‘Concours Mondial 2009’ in Valencia (www.concoursmondial.eu).
We are very pleased with these achievements and it inspires us to paddle along, making even better wines.
We offer some very interesting degustations and visits to the vineyards. The application can be done by email or by telephone.
For more information, please visit our website: www.bonbaron.com or call us on 003281241919 or 0032487700303.
Nederwaals wijnchâteau met AOC
Een Nederlands paar, Jeannette en Piotr Van Der Steen, heeft nu 6.000 wijnstokken van hun merk Château Bon Baron, sinds kort een onderdeel van de officiële AOC Côtes de Sambre et Meuse. De productie was 1.200 liter in 2006 en 3.000 liter vorig jaar. Het paar trok in 2001 van Eindhoven naar een stukje Maasoever in Lustin (Profondeville, Namur). Hier staan 2.500 druivenstokken. Ook zijn er 2.000 in Burnot en 1.650 in Wépion. Om Belgische wijnen onder de aandacht te brengen werkt het Château samen met de gemeente, de confrérie Coteaux de Meuse, de school l'Institut de Sacre Coeur in Burnot, en de Paters van de Sacre Coeur. Meer bij Le Soir
Het paar wil ook een wijnmuseum inrichten in een ondergrondse cave op de wijngaardterrassen van ValBurnot. Za. 23 aug. is er een open dag op de wijngaard St. Heribert met een barbecue (15 euro pp, inschrijven op de website).
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