Belgian wine  Belgian wine is produced in several parts of Belgium and production, although still modest at 1,400 hectoliters in 2004, has expanded in recent decades. Belgian wine first appeared in the Middle Ages, around the 9th century. It is unlikely that wine was made in the area now known as Belgium before that, since the climate was not suitable and Gaul was covered with thick forests. However, there are mentions of Paris vineyards in the 4th century. From that time, vine cultivation spread northward and in the 8th century the banks of the Rhine were covered with vineyards. The first attempts at viniculture in Belgium were made around the same time. Moreover, the vineyards were already well established in Amay. The vineyard at Vivegnis, in the north of the province of Liège, was already considered old in the 9th century, as well as the vineyard at Huy, which belonged in part to the Bishop of Liège. The edges of the Meuse River were intensively cultivated because they offered well-exposed hillsides. In the 14th century, each city had its own vineyard, whether within or outside the city walls. The cities of Tournai, Louvain, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Thuin, Hal, Dinant, Namur, Tongres, and Huy, among others, have left signs of their vinicultural activities in the form of local place names such as Wijnberg, "mount of vines", Wijngaard, Dutch "vineyard", Vivegnis and Vinalmont. The first to cultivate vines in the region were monks, who needed a clean, safe beverage for their celebrations, one that would risk contaminating neither the citizens nor the rainwater catchment; the vine responded to their efforts, and so the first vineyards were the property of abbeys. Some of the more organized abbeys even owned vineyards outside of their districts. Wine grapes were also cultivated by individuals, as well as by seigneurs such as the Dukes of Burgundy, who owned the vineyards at Brussels, Louvain, Aarschot, Namur and Mons. Climatic conditions in the 15th century presented difficulties for viniculture, with the onset of the Little Ice Age. Some vineyards in favorable microclimates survived until the 17th century. During this same era, techniques of beer production advanced and, owing to the addition of hops, storage life was prolonged.