St Peter's Abbey Ghent

Belgium is not known as a wine producing country and actually it's not. This tradition, introduced by the Romans, vanished ages ago. From there on we concentrated on what we're good at: producing beer!

Especially Belgian abbeys are known to produce high quality beer, probably the best beer in the world (whatever the Danish might say of Carlsberg). In Ghent you can find two abbeys, both of them not populated by monks anymore, so no production of beer either.

In the seventies a group called Gentse Wijnmetersgilde (guild of wine measurers) were unsatisfied with the fact that the abbey of St Peter didn't produce beer or wine anymore. They decided to rebuild a vineyard again in the gardens of the St Peter Abbey. They don't produce a huge amount of wine, but just enough to keep the tradition alive and to serve local wine on official city receptions.

This place could be paradise: the beautiful abbey, relaxed gardens and a view on the river Scheldt and the vineyards. The perfect place to chill out or to restore from a night of trying to many kinds of Belgian beer.