Is wine made in the Netherlands?

The Netherlands has 9 protected designations of origin for wine, from Maasvallei Limburg and Mergelland to Achterhoek Winterswijk, Rivierenland and Twente.

Oolde, Vijlen, Voerendaalse Bergen and Schouwen-Duiveland are also on that list. Besides the designations of origin, each province has its own protected geographical indication for wine, twelve in total.

A protected name means that an approved product file lies behind it and that compliance is monitored.

With a protected designation of origin all grapes come from the area; with a protected geographical indication that only needs to apply to 85 percent.

For a PDO, the wine must in addition be produced in the area itself and made by approved methods, and pass an organoleptic assessment every year. For a PGI, it is enough that at least one production stage takes place in the area and that the remaining grapes come from the same country.

The PDO therefore sets the stricter requirements for origin and method.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority checks Dutch wine twice: during production and again when the bottles come onto the market.

In practice those two steps are called the A check and the B check. For a protected designation of origin there is also an annual sensory inspection, in which the wine is assessed on aroma and taste.

Wine that does not pass this may not carry the protected name.

The Netherlands, Belgium and the west of Germany lie in the same cool climate, so the grapes ripen later there than in southern Europe.

Winegrowers in these regions therefore often work with grape varieties that ripen early and can withstand moisture. The same varieties occur on both sides of the border, which makes the wines related to one another.

That makes a bottle from the Netherlands a natural neighbour to a bottle from the Moselle or from Flanders.

The label of a Dutch wine carries the same European mandatory particulars as every other bottle: origin, alcohol content, volume and the mention of sulphites.

The rules for this are set out in Delegated Regulation 2019/33 and, for allergens, in Regulation 1169/2011. A protected name may only appear on the label once the wine has passed inspection.

If such a name is missing, the wine can still come from the Netherlands; it then falls outside the protected categories.

In the wine & spirits shop at Brink 2 in Bathmen, Dutch wines stand among the wines from the rest of Europe, sorted by type.

Zoekt u een fles uit een bepaalde streek of provincie, vraag het dan aan de toonbank of bel 0570 541 278. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan mensen onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.