The year 2024 was not a good wine year throughout the Netherlands. In Drenthe winemakers also suffered from a so -called soil and frost at the wrong time. The Association of Dutch Wine Producers (VNWP) reports this on the basis of figures from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).
“The quality was good, but we had little. About half of the year before,” says former winemaker Peter Pels from Havelte. According to Pels, the weather is the biggest culprit of the reduced harvest of last year.
Three winemakers Drenthe are affiliated with VNWP, but for the collection of all liters of wine the figures of all commercial vineyards in Drenthe were taken.
Nationally, around 5,684 hectoliters, or more than 750,000 bottles, have been made. It is the worst wine year in the Netherlands since 2012 and more than a halving in the number of liters compared to record year 2023. In 2023, more than 1.7 million bottles of wine were produced in the Netherlands, from more than 12,000 hectoliters of wine.
The association does not know how many liters actually come from Drenthe farmers. Pels bottled between 2,000 and 2,500 bottles, where he had nearly 5,000 bottles the year before.
In October, Drenthe winegrowers are already speaking of a failed harvest, but according to the VNMP the damage is greater than expected. “We had a bit of a big mouth at the beginning of the year. A little after that it got wet and we had problems with flowering,” said Pels.