Wine of the week: an enchanting chardonnay from Belgium
Delicate, haunting and packed with vitality and verve, this Belgian chardonnay is a rare beauty.


2019 Château de Bousval, Gouttes d’O Chardonnay, Bousval, Jardins de Wallonie, Belgium
£34, reduced to £30.25 each by the case, Haynes Hanson & Clark, 020-7584 7927, hhandc.co.uk
Early one evening, just before Christmas, the doorbell rang and a voice shouted out “wine delivery”. This is nothing new – it happens ten times a day – but I thought I recognised the voice. The cycle courier turned out to be none other than Jim Eustace, MD and fine-wine guru at Haynes Hanson & Clark. Soaking wet, but grinning from ear to ear, he was clutching two bottles of white each with a dribble of wine left inside. He handed them over and then sped off, shouting, “Happy Tasting, they are from Belgium!”.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Until that evening, I had never tasted Belgian wine. After a quick search on the internet, I found that Château de Bousval is situated only a few miles south of Waterloo, where I spent a few years at school when I was a child. This wine is a biodynamically farmed, pin-sharp, pristine chardonnay, and it is absolutely enchanting! Delicate, haunting, packed with vitality and verve, and only tipping the scales at 12% alcohol, this is a rare beauty and it even manages to hide a whisper of oak in its core, too. This is effortlessly classy winemaking from an unexpected postcode and so when the stock arrived in the UK last week I had to sing about it.
While you are at it, pick up its sibling, 2019 Le Petit Gris Pinot Gris (£40.95 a bottle/£36.40 each by the case), which takes this oft-dreary grape to a fascinating destination. What a pair, what a find!
Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.
Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.
He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.
Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.
Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.
-
Pinewood Technologies: a drive for growth
Pinewood Technologies’ platform is one of the best in the business. Investors should buy in
-
'EV maker Faraday Future will crash'
Faraday Future Intelligent Electric is failing dismally to live up to its name, says Matthew Partridge
-
8 of the best houses for sale with follies
The best houses for sale with follies in the grounds – from a five-storey Victorian Gothic tower in Tonbridge, Kent, to a former mill in Oxfordshire with gardens that include a folly on an island in a lake
-
Sotheby’s fishes for art collectors – will it succeed?
Sotheby’s is seeking to restore confidence in the market after landing Leonard Lauder's art collection, including Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer
-
Review: The Lakes by Yoo – luxury living in the Cotswolds
Travel The Lakes by Yoo combines a luxury hotel stay with the convenience of a holiday rental in a gorgeous lakeside setting
-
8 of the best houses for sale with separate accommodation
The best houses for sale with separate accommodation – from a converted 17th-century threshing barn in Monmouthshire, to a Grade II-listed Queen Anne house in North Yorkshire with four apartments in the stable block
-
Review: Bequia Beach Hotel – nostalgic fun in the Caribbean
Travel Bequia Beach Hotel on the island of Bequia in St Vincent and the Grenadines is a resort with personality that is as luxurious as it is playful
-
8 of the best properties for sale with orangeries
From a converted Victorian Catholic school with a chapel in Kingston Upon Thames to a 12-acre country estate with mature gardens and a lake in Nantwich, Cheshire, we look at some of the best properties for sale with orangeries