Vineyard Apostelhoeve wins prestigious French wine awards!
Three Times Gold in the Lion's Den for Apostelhoeve
Celebrating Maastricht wine company outshines top Alsace domaines.
A wonderful birthday present for Apostelhoeve in Maastricht. The vineyard, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – making it the oldest professional winery in the Netherlands – has won no fewer than three gold medals at Le Mondial des Vins Blancs Strasbourg 2020 in Strasbourg.
The awarding of three gold medals in Strasbourg is a major boost for a winery from the Netherlands. Le Mondial des Vins Blancs Strasbourg is regarded as one of the world's most important wine competitions. Winning one or more medals here places a winery among the international elite.
The list of award winners includes white wines from some of the most important and refined appellations in France, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia. Apostelhoeve is the only winery from the Netherlands and Belgium featured on the list. The 2019 Cuvée XII (with its recognizable orange label) received gold, along with the 2019 Pinot Gris and the 2019 Riesling.
Notably, the list of gold and silver medal winners (bronze medals are not awarded) includes many top domaines from Alsace. These are wineries entitled to market their wines under prestigious, protected designations such as AOC Alsace Grand Cru Kaefferkopf, AOP Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Wolxheim, AOC Alsace Grand Cru Furstentum, and AOC Alsace Grand Cru Zinnkoepflé – names that captivate even the most seasoned lovers of fine white wines.
Also on the list are renowned white wines with AOC classifications from the Loire (including Pouilly Fumé and Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru), top wines from Slovenia and Romania, and even a top viognier from Italy, made from the grape variety of the same name native to the Northern Rhône, which Apostelhoeve recently planted for the first time.
“When I see all those big names, it makes my head spin,” says Mathieu Hulst, co-owner of Apostelhoeve. “Wine critics – even from abroad – often write that we in the Netherlands and Belgium belong to the absolute top. But achieving such high recognition on a global level with three gold medals has exceeded my wildest expectations.”
Apostelhoeve is now quite selective about submitting its wines to national and international competitions, where often 80% of the entries receive a medal. “That’s great for a small vineyard seeking recognition. But as the oldest professional winery in the Netherlands – and I mean this sincerely – we’ve long moved beyond the ‘regional’ level. At Le Mondial des Vins Blancs Strasbourg, fewer than a third of the entries win a medal. Being among them is, of course, fantastic.”
Mathieu hopes that winemakers from the Low Countries can continue this upward trend, saying, “If we can maintain this momentum, we’ll truly demonstrate our capabilities and firmly establish Dutch and Belgian wine on the international map. It would be amazing if, ten years from now, on our 60th anniversary, we could look back and say that as pioneers from Maastricht, we’ve made our mark on European wine history.”