La Balbrière

La Balbrière (Balbi Girls cuvées) 

Ottignies (Limelette) - on the lands of L'Arbre qui Pousse, Ferme de la Balbrière - Former horse meadow

Soil: deep loamy soil with good water retention
Planted: 2021
Number of vines: 1350
Grape varieties: Souvignier Gris - Pinotin - Divico - Johanniter - Muscaris.

In 2018, while Les Pieds dans la Dyle was beginning to take shape, I was looking towards the lands of the Bawette, a huge wasteland of 14 hectares, a former part of the eponymous golf course sold to the city of Wavre at a time when the members were becoming scarcer.

I imagined planting my vines there and spoke to the municipality about it. But my small winemaking project clearly carried little weight beside what it had in mind for this immense site: an extension of the business park—admittedly more craft-oriented, lower-rise and perhaps a little more attractive—where a few rows of vines might eventually find a place once everything else had risen from the ground.

At the same time, I meet Arthur, who is returning from a grand tour of eco-communities around the world.

Around him, several people dream of what they like to call a pragmatic utopia: a farm, a transition labouratory where one could live, work, undertake, learn, and collectively experiment with other ways of producing, consuming, and living together.

I decide to show them the Bawette. The place excites them immediately. We see it as the ideal ground to host this much richer project. With Arthur, Nathalie, Juan, and the other members of the working group gathered around L’Arbre qui pousse, we organize a meeting with the Mayor to try to convince her to host this lively place there, with my vines among a multitude of agricultural, social, educational, and artisanal activities.

A proposal capable, in our eyes, of producing far more in terms of connections, experiences, and shared values than just another commercial zoning, even if nicely packaged.

The former municipal majority did not support the proposal.

The small L’Arbre qui Pousse collective therefore continued its search and eventually found land in Ottignies. In 2019, the Ecotones foundation acquired Ferme de la Balbrière: six hectares of land and 2,500 square metres of buildings intended to become a shared resource, capable of hosting communal housing and nurturing a multitude of projects.

Meanwhile, Les Pieds dans la Dyle was also moving forward. La Mosaïque, La Procession, Les Reliques and Le Ry had been planted. We were already tending the vines and beginning to make wine when I received a call:

"We found a place. It's La Balbrière. And if you want, there's a nice slope to plant vines."

In May 2021, we planted 1,350 vines there, exclusively resistant varieties, in a former horse meadow. The Foundation offers us much more than a piece of land: it believes in the project, mainly finances the trellising, and gives us a real place in the adventure. We provide the plants, the labour, and take care of managing the plot.

The vineyard became one of the branches of L’Arbre qui Pousse. It was welcomed, supported and followed with enthusiasm by the people who made the place possible. For our part, we gradually became part of its life and of this distinctive way of bringing different projects together so that, in time, they nourish one another.

It is a slow process, very slow. Over time, the Balbrière also hosts our winery and all the winemaking work. My presence on the farm is mainly concentrated from mid-August to the end of October: preparing the winery, harvest, receiving and processing the grapes, fermentations, and then putting them in the cellar and aging.

Two and a half months during which I settle in and, it must be admitted, make a real mess on the farm. This seasonal occupation, with all the crates, work, and unforeseen events it brings, is now part of the life of the place.

Then the fermentations calm down, the wines go down to the cellar, and the farm gradually returns to its rhythm.

Collabouration, therefore, was not built in a day; it grew like everything else: through trust, seized opportunities, exchanged favors, intersecting projects, and the pleasure of seeing that they work better together than each separately.

Today, the grapes grow on the lands of Balbrière, the wine is made within its walls, sold at the market of L'Arbre qui Pousse, and drunk a few meters away, at the restaurant La Cabane.

This story gave rise to the La Balbrière plot and the Balbi Girls cuvées.

We had come to look for land to plant. We found a place to belong to, to contribute to, and with which to continue growing.