France’s most northerly wine region believes in its potential: “If we’d been allowed to, we’d have planted vines many years ago”

he Norberts’ farm covers 161 hectares planted to wheat, rapeseed, sunflowers, beet and, since 2021, four hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier in Mentque-Nortbécourt, in France’s most northerly department of Pas-de-Calais. “We produce traditional method sparkling wine just like in Champagne”, stresses winegrower Antoine Bouin.

In June 2025, the estate’s first 4,800 bottles labelled ‘La Belle Aventure’ were released for sale, all from the cellar door. For the Norberts’ farm, ‘La Belle Aventure’ is not some hare-brained scheme – in the medium term, wine could account for up to 40% of its revenue. “Everyone says that global warming is encouraging us to make wine, but if we’d been allowed to, we’d have planted vines many years ago. After all, Belgium has had vineyards for a long time”.

“We haven’t had any formal training, we are entirely self-taught”, points out Bouin. From a production perspective, “we are already familiar with downy and powdery mildew”. What is new, though, is the winemaking aspect, where he has recruited the help of a winemaker. “I did the first alcoholic fermentations with no issues”, he says, visibly pleased. He was surprised though by “the number of times you have to handle a bottle” before it is sold. The biggest challenge is coordinating vineyard management with other tasks on the farm. So immediately after harvesting, he was planning to sow wheat and harvest sunflowers, whilst also managing the winemaking process in the morning. “It’s all about organisation”.