Belgium Wine?

Connections happen all over the world! And when they do, for me, its like having a hummingbird visit my yard, it makes me happy! In May when Connor and I visited Scott in Brussels, we went to the US Army Garrison (USAG Benelux – Sterrebeek Annex). We had to update our Army IDs and sign docs for a new and different ID (remember the Belgium administrative state, more on IDs in a different upcoming post). While there we went to the small post exchange, more like a little convenience store. As I was walking around jet lagged and trying to get my bearings, a women said “you must be from Georgia?” She noticed my Augusta National Masters zip up. She is from Augusta living in Brussels, her husband is on assignment here. They have lived overseas many times. Thank you Lord for the lifeline.

Lindsay has been kind to help me in many ways. She recommended I join the NATO International Club. What an amazing group of people (mostly women, but not all) whose spouse works at NATO. I am not sure if all NATO countries are represented, but I have met people from Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Poland, Canada, Croatia and Hungry. We are all in similar situations – moved their family to Brussels to support the NATO efforts. English is not everyone’s first language. Most speak three or more languages, hello dumb American trying to keep up. Talking with each person has been an amazing experience learning their background, where they have lived, where their children attend school, etc. They all understand this moment in our lives just 6-weeks into living in Brussels. There is much comfort in not being alone.

NIC is an all volunteer club. Each person bringing a skill set to the group. There are tours, walks/hikes, coffees, lunches, monthly meetings, creative groups, book clubs, and more. Today I joined the vineyard excursion with 30 ladies on a tour bus for an hour long ride in the Belgium countryside. A lovely trip with beautiful views and fun banter. At one point our host yells out “look right” for us to see a beautiful field of purple flowers with sunflowers growing throughout. We all ooohed and aaahed. Such beauty.

The vineyard tour was fun. We learned about their history and approach to organic grape growing. We saw the production process, learned how they bottle wines and the time it takes from grape picking to bottles being sold – sometimes years. We then had fun tasting four wines. I am not a big wine drinker, Scott and I prefer beer, but this was fun anyway. I sat with two Americans and three Italians. The Italians had opinions!! They were not afraid to let it be known that they were not terribly impressed with the Belgium wine offerings, but they did enjoy telling us about a favorite Italian wine store in Brussels and giving us detailed recommendations. Will definately find this wine store soon!

Two interesting mentions during the tour. First, the “buckets” used to hand pick grapes. Simple looking, but the tactic is to have small buckets that allow for water to flow through and not crush the grapes on the bottom. Since Belgium is known for its rain, grape picking happens regardless of rain or sunshine. So the buckets can’t accumulate rain water as they are getting picked, loaded in the truck and stored prior to crushing. I appreciated their use of low tech and high tech methods. The bottling process (either in bottle or in barrel) was high tech and beyond my pay grade. Second, is at the end of each row are rosebushes. Originally long ago, the rose bushes were planted to help the vineyard know if that row of grapevines was healthy and thriving. While not really needed now due to organic growing techniques, the rose bushes are tradition and liven up the vineyard.