France: "Charbonnay": The Coal Miners' Legacy

(Wine-Searcher) - In a former coal-mining town near the port of Calais, a small group of winemakers are trying their hand at growing grapes on a slag heap: a mountain of waste rock accumulated during the town’s mining days.

Not only are they trying to make wine from the once-barren hill: theirs might just be the most northerly vineyard in France, situated 200 kilometers northwest of the Champagne capital, Reims.

The venture, in the town of Haillicourt, was born five years ago, when Charente winemakers Henri Jammet and Olivier Pucek first discussed the idea. Having grown up in the area, Pucek told his friend Jammet about the spoil tips from his childhood, not far from his hometown.

After thinking about it, Jammet says, “I saw the weather wasn’t conducive to growing grapes, but the soil could be." He did have some reservations, joking that "they say there is no sun” in the north, but he was "happy to give it a go."

With the support of Pucek’s childhood friends and the town's mayor, Gerard Foucault, the project has taken root, under a partnership titled "Audacious Wines."

“Their idea was extraordinary, and what’s more it keeps our mining heritage alive,” explains Foucault. Mining in the town started in 1904 but came to an end just 52 years later, leaving the town with the spoil tip as an unmissable reminder of its past.

Around a dozen pickers turned up to pick the first harvest from the slag heap.

“Today is a great day because everybody was laughing at us,” admits Jammet. While planting vines at a northern latitude of 50 degrees is a risky business, he has been pleasantly surprised by the results. “What has astonished me is the health of the vines. There’s no disease."

Pucek’s childhood friend Franck adds: “I’m really impressed to see how much work they have done. It has encouraged me to plant a vine in my garden. I have had one bunch so far – it’s a good omen!"