Wine walk in Leuven

Mid-September I had planned to join a friend on a wine walk through Leuven.  It promised to be a fantastic autumn summer day and I was looking forward to drinking wine, learning a bit new about wine and about Leuven. 

Unfortunately, Jan's connecting flight home from San Francisco got cancelled and rebooked and he wasn't going to be home by the time I had to leave.  Thankfully there is Wi-Fi on board so I knew when I woke up and it resulted in spamming multiple potential babysits early on Saturday morning.  Babysits are not awake early on Saturday morning, so it took some patience to wait and see if it worked out, but it did.  Our regular babysit that often picks up the boys from school showed up after lunch and I left downtown.  It's a bit stupid I wasn't going to be home when Jan got home after his business trip, but it was what it was.  


I speed walked from one side of Leuven to the other side of Leuven, along the terrasses downtown that were buzzing with activity in the sun. I met my friend and her friend, being the wine tour guide, and a small group of Dutch tourists that had subscribed to the tour as well.  I was totally sweaty and thirsty and out of breath and I regretted not having taken a bottle of water with me on the tour as I could not really quench my thirst with the wine I suppose.

Thankfully we didn't lose time, and we climbed the Keizersberg to the abbey on top to have our first stop to discuss historic vineyards on the hills of Leuven and have a first taste of a pink bubbly wine from the region.  

With our glasses in the hand, we started to zigzag through the city as to avoid the crowded area's. At each stop our guide pulled out a new bottle of local wines for us to taste.  My friend and I fell in the trap to start explaining things about Leuven as well, but I quickly realized this was not our role and had to be irritating for the guide so we focussed on drinking the wine instead.  At least, with each glass we drunk, the weight of his backpack was getting lighter :p. 

At the botanical garden, we sat next to some recently renewed vineyards with experimental resistant grape types.  After a walk through this gorgeous historic garden, that seemed the spot for a lot of wedding pictures, we had a taste of a experimental grape wine as well...strange taste to drink it pure but probably lovely to do some food pairing. And it was good to get some nibbles as well, as the wine and heat did have a tipsy effect on me. 

sitting under the kiwi tree in the botanical garden

At the borders of the Dijle at the Janseniustower and on the Hogeschoolplein, we returned to more traditional wines to finish off. 

With some last sightseeing we finished a really fun tour.  Glad my friend invited me to join and that it all worked out to join the Young Wine Club. 

 In an excellent but tipsy mood, I returned home on foot to welcome Jan back home.