The first wines produced in Northern France are a pleasant surprise

good fifteen or so journalists travelled to Arras, in Pas-de-Calais, northern France on June 8, keen to find out what the very first still white wines made from vines planted in 2020 would taste like. Eleven farmers in the Hauts-de-France region planted vines in collaboration with the trading company Ternoveo.

All of them were pleasantly surprised by the two first labels made from Chardonnay, Azimute and Parallèle 50.

The two still wines have very different flavours. Whilst Azimute is a fairly distinctive wine styled more for the aperitif, Parallèle 50 should be served preferably as a food-friendly wine with fish or poultry for example. Initial comments ascribed more fruity notes to Azimute, “citrus fruits, grapefruit with a trace of lemon” with, “in the background some passion fruit and pineapple”. The wine was also described as “a straw-yellow wine with lovely golden reflections”, that “glides across the palate” and is “well-balanced”. “We worked with fairly low temperatures of around 13 to 15°C”, explains Laetitia Vankerkoven, one of the two winemakers and cellar master at Ternoveo.

Parallèle 50 is a golden yellow-hued wine “with nice brilliance and clarity”. Comments varied and described it as a wine with “more texture on the palate”, “more complex aromas”, notes of “vanilla and brioche”, a “more rounded, mouth-filling wine”. “Its fairly subtle oaky edge is due to time spent in oak casks for a few months”, points out the second winemaker and company’s cellarmaster Guillermo Arancibia. “For this wine, we chose a fermentation temperature of around 18°C”.

“The wines were not chaptalized”, he stresses. “But we would not rule out using the technique one day if need be”. The two wines are sold under the ‘Les 130’ brand name, referring to the 130 farmers who should ultimately invest in the project with Ternoveo, and to the 130 blocks covering an average 1.5 hectares which will gradually be planted across the region. To date, 70 farmers have made a commitment to the project with approximately 80 hectares under vine.