Modern wine 'miracle'

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Source: Nuns, stuck with cancelled order, sell 20,000 bottles of wine: 'It's a miracle' - DutchNews.nl

Nuns, stuck with cancelled order, sell 20,000 bottles of wine: ‘It’s a miracle’

September 10, 2020

Planting the vineyards in 2015. Photo: Ton Toemen/HH


A mission of mercy has helped wine-making nuns sell the 20,000 bottles of white wine they were stuck with when ‘a major Dutch airline’ pulled the plug because of coronavirus, Dutch media report.

The plight of the sisters at Sint Catherinadal convent in Oosterhout, home to the oldest order in the country and partly dependent for its upkeep on the sale of the wine, came to the attention of Thibaud van der Steen of platform Breda maakt mij blij (Breda makes me happy) [Dutch only] some weeks ago.

The platform helps farmers and others who have trouble selling their produce because of the coronavirus crisis by featuring them on their site.

‘We made a little video a couple of weeks ago to market the wine and then the sales snowballed, with people from the Wadden islands to Maastricht wanting bottles. The nuns think it’s a miracle,’ Van der Steen said.

All of the bottles have now found a home [in Dutch], just in time to make room for the next load. ‘The 2019 wine is almost ready and that needs to be sold as well. And later this year we will asking volunteers to help pick this year’s grapes,’ Van der Steen said.

The sisters have been making mostly white and rosé wines since 2017 using Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Auxerrois and Gamay, they say on their website [Dutch only].

Similar coverage: Oosterhout monastery's wine sold out in five days

Sint Catharinadal monastery in Oosterhout - jstuij - DepositPhotosDeposit Photos

 

[Palinurus]

Source: Hot summer gives wine-making nuns a headache - DutchNews.nl

Hot summer gives wine-making nuns a headache​

April 20, 2023

Last year’s hot weather has put the wine-making nuns at Sint Catharinedal convent in Oosterhout in a tight spot, with 64,000 bottles of wine they can’t sell.

The Norbertinessen order, which has been at Sint Catharinedal since 1647, is partly dependent for the upkeep of the convent on the sale of wine, sister Maria Magdalena told local broadcaster Omroep Brabant (in Dutch).

The nuns started making wine in 2012. Originally the idea was to plant hops for beer making on the extensive convent grounds but that was rejected as ‘unfitting for a female order’ and the nuns plumped for wine.

‘It has Biblical connotations and refers to Jesus. And to be perfectly honest, the nuns like it themselves,’ sister Maria Magdalena said. ‘I think we did the right thing when we picked wine making. It makes people happy.’

Some 130 volunteers and people with an intellectual disability help the nuns harvest the grapes and bottle the wine every year.

The nuns have been stuck with surplus wine before when KLM pulled the plug on an order of 20,000 bottles during the pandemic in 2020. At the time, the nuns were helped out by local charity Breda Maakt Mij Blij which has stepped in again (in Dutch).

The platform helps farmers and others who have trouble selling their produce by featuring them on their website (in Dutch). A bottle of Norbertus white or a Ricwere rosé, named after the first nun at the convent, is featured for €14.50.

‘It’s a tall order. It was just too hot and sunny last year. It sounds good but now they have 64,000 bottles to sell,’ spokesman Thibaud van der Steen said.

The nuns meanwhile regard the increase in their wine stockpile as a divine gift. ‘It will alleviate our money worries, if they sell, that is,’ sister Maria Magdalena said.