Antwerp’s Wijnfaktorij has attracted the attention of the influential French daily Le Monde. Last weekend, Josep Roca praised Kontreir, a wine from wine producer Wijnfaktorij up in Antwerp. Josep Roca is the wine steward of El Celler de Can Roca, a Spanish 3-star restaurant that has already been voted ‘best in the world’ twice. Wijnfaktorij manager Patrick Nijs suddenly understood why his store had been inundated by French tourists all at once!
"It was supposed to be a quiet Saturday at the Wijnfaktorij: a long holiday weekend with mostly tourists in town. A suspiciously large number of French people stopped by the shop today: from Marseilles, Le Havre, Paris...," Patrick Nijs posts on social media network Instagram.
Where they had suddenly come from became clear after a phone call he received. "Apparently an article about the future of European wine had appeared in Le Monde. Whether the Kontreir wine would still be available for one of the best restaurants in Paris? Whaaat? Kontreir tipped as a top wine by Josep Roca, sommelier of Celler de Can Roca, twice voted best restaurant in the world!"
Wine of the future
Wijnfaktorij’s Kontreir has been on the menu at the famous restaurant for some time. In Le Monde the wine steward speaks of an incredible project. According to him, the trump cards of the "small" vineyard in Tielt-Winge in Flemish Brabant are its sunny microclimate and iron-rich soil. The grapes from the Hageland District are processed and bottled in the heart of Antwerp.
"Apparently, on the occasion of the European elections Le Monde asked 22 sommeliers which wines they see as the wines of the future," Nijs explains. "I now also got a phone call from a restaurant in Paris. They want to come and taste."
The Wijnfaktorij only produces wines from vineyards that it manages in the Hageland District, Reet and Wijnegem in Antwerp Province and the Valley of the River Maas (Meuse) near Maaseik (Limburg).