Meet the nuns who'd like to sell you a bottle or two of their wine

It was a good vintage in 2022 for winemakers in the south of the Netherlands. 

Which is why the nuns from the the Sint Catharinadal monastery in Oosterhout have too much wine in their cellar. 

The enterprising nuns have started an online campaign to sell the excess stock, Breda Vandaag newspaper reported. 

“The dry, warm and sunniest season ever produced beautiful, full bunches of grapes last year,” Prioress Sister Maria Magdalena told the newspaper. 

"We were able to make 64,000 bottles of rosé and white wine from this, almost twice as much as in a normal season." 

But it has proved a challenge for the nuns to get rid of their stock, so they have linked with the Breda Maakt Mij Bliij (Breda Makes Me Happy) online platform. 

Bottles of the 2022 white blend (pinot blanc, pinot gris and auxerrois blanc) are on offer from  €14.50 a bottle, along with the 2022 rosé made from pinot noir and gamay. 

The nuns started making wine in 2014 to fund the maintenance of their convent’s buildings. 

Thibaud van der Steen, co-founder of Breda Maakt Mij Blij, which helps producers, farmers and growers sell excess goods, said the nuns called him a few weeks ago to ask for help.

Image: Breda Vandaag