Culture: Limburg winemaker at work: the bison droppings give the wine a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’
A couple of weeks ago, I took a city bus from Maastricht to Wahwiller with my boyfriend Emiel and friend Malan. We travelled southeast and got off after about a half an hour. With only rolling green hills in sight, we walked ten minutes up to a beautiful little vineyard. We were about to gather with Emiel’s family, the Huijben clan, to pick the annual crop of green grapes.
The Netherlands isn’t known for its fine wine, but despite a difficult climate there are roughly 45 professional wine-growers. South Limburg is the main wine growing region in the country.
Vineyard owner and Emiel’s dad Harry Huijben arrives in his truck singing loud Spanish music. He’s excited about the day’s event, and so am I. This is my very first grape picking experience. The sun is out and it feels and looks more like the south of France than flat old Holland. But we’re not in Holland, we’re in Limburg. This is wine country.
Harry and his brother Jack produce a very dry white wine in Wahwiller. The Huijbens love what they do and they’re almost always cracking jokes and enjoying themselves. But it didn’t start as a hobby or passion for wine, rather a love for nature, animals and plants. As Harry puts it, “I don’t drink that much, sometimes not for a month. I’m not a wine drinker.”
I spoke to Harry about his wine, and he recalls starting the vineyard in the early eighties. At the time, he joined a regional business club called the Societeit de Eendracht. Some of the club members were more interested in golf and tennis than nature. Harry had bought some land and wanted to cultivate it. It wasn’t very fashionable to enjoy wild flowers, but a vineyard would hold some cultural clout at the business club.
So he came to this business almost by accident, with his love of the land combined with a little peer pressure. Harry soon had his meadows full of sheep, special flowers and birds. There was also room for a vineyard. And at the time, Harry says his was one of only a few vineyards in the whole country. Because of geography, much of the Netherlands is too wet and cold to produce grapes for wine.
Domein Hubertus
On the side, Harry is the doctor for the village of Mechelen. His brother, Jack Huijben is a chemist. When Jack returned to Limburg from Mexico in 1988, he was eager to join the wine making business. From then on Harry has been cultivating the land and vines and Jack oversees the fermentation process of the vino. This little vineyard has led to a modest business called Domein Hubertus (Huijben is Dutch for Hubert). Their wine is called Mergellandwijn which means ‘Limestone country wine’, in reference to the name of the area. Grapes grow on any kind of soil, but Harry says that the limestone chalk gives the grapes a special flavour.
What is lovely about this business is its family character. Cousins, aunts, uncles and even grandma come out every October to pick the fruit. Actually the clusters of grapes aren’t really picked. They’re cut with garden clippers or scissors. Each plant holds about 4-5 large bunches. The grapes are smaller than the grocery store variety, but so much sweeter and juicier. Domein Hubertus grow four kinds of grapes: Rivaner, Bacchus, Auxerrois and Pinot Gris.
We do get a break from picking. For lunch we are offered vlaai, vlaai and more vlaai. I have never seen so many delicious fruit pies. I even try rijstevlaai, which is basically sweet rice pudding in a pie crust. Not the best for a low-carb diet, but tasty nonetheless. While munching away in the afternoon sun, a large group of Dutch tourists approach. The neighbouring wine maker is giving a wine tour, and Harry puts down his pie to add some free commentary.
In the early days, Harry was told one plant will produce enough grapes for one bottle of wine. He should plant 365 plants so he can have one bottle per day. He followed the advice. But Harry gets two bottles per plant. Today, with some 500 grape vines he produces around 1000 bottles per year.
Why so many healthy plants? What’s the secret ingredient? The land is very fertile because Harry uses an unusual home grown fertilizer. Every winter, he carts frozen manure from his farm animals. 
Harry has European buffalos, Highland cows and various sheep roaming the meadows around his old country house in the rural community of Cottessen near Epen. When their droppings freeze in the winter, transporting the bison poop to the vineyard becomes less messy for obvious reasons.
Bison poop
According to Harry, many people are snobs about wine. They go to wine tasting functions, learn the jargon and think they’re experts. Harry sees these people as “balloons that he likes to take a needle to and pop.” They swish and smell his wine and say they taste hints of wood, vanilla or apple. Then he says to them, “maybe I should add some more bison s*** to get some more apple or vanilla flavour.” And then the snob is speechless. “I don’t know about other wine or the jargon, but I do know all about my wine and how to grow the grapes.”
Harry is very down to earth and doesn’t take himself too seriously. “If people don’t like my wine, I tell them that ten minutes after drinking my wine at least they will be laughing and having a good time.” The doctor claims his wine may even have medicinal qualities and has some on stock at his pharmacy.
The Huijben brothers have won several awards in Limburg and the Netherlands. They decided to ride the publicity and approached restaurants and advertised in newspapers. A few South Limburg stores and restaurants agreed to sell the wine and continue to do so. Four years ago, the wine was even served for the EU Parliament. Officials contacted Harry after he won a top award for best Dutch dry white wine. They asked again the following year, but Harry didn’t have enough wine in stock.
Holland abroad
After being picked, we pour the grapes into large tubs. Then they go through a large old fashioned press which we turn by hand. This lightly squashes the grapes and gets them ready for the final juicing back at Harry’s house. The juice is carted to Jack’s place where it ferments for two weeks. Once the sugar becomes alcohol, the wine is bottled. All this from grapes picked in one day by family and friends.
Regional cuisine has been popularised since the 80s. Harry thinks this helped his success. There is now demand for local Limburg wine. Wine tours have popped up in the area. For now, most of the tourists are Dutch from the north of the country. They call the area ‘Holland Abroad’ since they find the dialect and rolling hills almost foreign. There are even vineyard cycle tours.
As a way to popularise the area, local groups want to change the name to the English “Maastricht Hills” to attract foreigners outside of the Netherlands. Mergelland (Limestone country) and the larger Heuvelland (Hilly country) don’t appeal to foreigners, who can’t understand Dutch.
At the end of the day, our wages are paid in wine of course.
By Danya Chaikel
For more information
Mergellandwijn can be purchased at several South Limburg restaurants. Harry and Jack don’t have a website and they don’t advertise anymore because demand outweighs their yearly supply of 1000 bottles.
Danya Chaikel is from Vancouver, Canada and recently graduated from law school. She has a background of working with migrants and promoting human rights. Danya recently moved to Maastricht to be with her Dutch partner.
