Introducing Wijngaard Lijsternest

Back in September of last year we began our three week tour to the continent with a stop at Servaas Blockeel’s Wijngaard Lijsternest which proved to be one of our most inspiring of the trip.

Servaas is based just outside the Belgian city of Kortrijk, about a 40 minute drive north of the French city of Lille, just within the Belgian border - an area with no established wine tradition. In fact, his background was in the installation of self-filtering pools that relied on a harmonious system of algae and plants to clean the water, giving you a clue to the mind of the man.

Beginning to plant his 4 hectare domaine in 2013, Servaas elected to use little-known crossings developed in Switzerland that would both flourish in the cooler Belgian climate and be resistant to fungal disease. His desire was to create a vineyard ecosystem that gave more than it took away and seeing the place it is clear this has been achieved. In Servaas’ own words “the ecological always comes prior to the perception of quality”. He follows a Fukuoka-inspired method of no-till farming, encouraging animal and insect diversity by planting hedges and trees around the vines and impressively has never once sprayed his vines with copper or sulphur.

It would be easy to misinterpret his dedication to farming as foolhardy but Servaas’ philosophy, built on research, experimentation and imagination is simply that if you can create a healthy and complex soil, and have an environment that promotes biodiversity, your presence is benefitting the area through your work, and not only this, but it is possible to harvest fantastic grapes which can in turn make interesting and complex wines. He is not wrong.

Work in the cellar is light, using methods led by a desire to not interfere with the character of the grapes - destemming bunches by hand and using large HDPE egg-shaped vessels for fermentation and élevage. His parcellaire wines are all field blends of red and white varieties with each possessing a clear character from their differing soil types.

We couldn’t be more excited to see how this forward-thinking domaine develops in the future and are proud to bring the wines to the UK for the first time.