Cheers: slight rise in the number of Dutch vineyards
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There were 92 vineyards in the Netherlands at the end of 2017, the national statistics office CBS revealed on Wednesday.
The numbers hardly fluctuate. There were only 88 vineyards in the country in 2016 while in 2013 there were as many as 97, the CBS said.
The average vineyard measured 1.7 hectares in 2017, up from 1.2 hectares in 2003. The largest vineyards, at 3.1 hectares, are in Zeeland province but Gelderland, Limburg and Noord-Brabant are the main producers of Dutch wine.
Operating a vineyard is expensive and entails a lot of hard work, said Dik Beker chairman of the Dutch wine producers association VNWP. ’Wine comes to market only four years after the grapevines are planted,’ he told public broadcaster NOS.
Dutch vineyards produce 1.2 million bottles of wine each year and this year’s harvest is set to produce a good wine, thanks to the warm and dry summer. The weather between now and the end of October is a determining factor, Beker said. ‘Sunny with cool nights are ideal,’ he said.
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