Our first visit to Fort Beren’s Winery in Lillooet, British Columbia in 2021 was nothing short of a revelation.
A most unique terroir.
Not only was it surprising that this remote location was capable of growing grapes, but in the right hands, those grapes could be turned into high quality wine. When owners Rolf de Bruin and his wife Heleen Pannekoek needed a new winemaker, their search lead them halfway around the world to an even more remote place in South Africa.
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Okanagan Crush Pad [source: Okanagan Crush Pad]
For many people 2021 won’t be remembered as a particularly auspicious year as the world continues to grapple with a global pandemic. But for Okanagan Crush Pad it is a year to celebrate. 2021 represents the winery’s 10th anniversary, and after a decade of challenges, change and growth, the irony of having it fall this particular year is not lost on owner Christine Coletta.
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Rolf de Bruin.
The word ‘pioneer’ gets bandied about a lot, but it truly takes vision to open the first commercial winery nowadays in a region with barely any viticultural history. It certainly wasn’t the first place Rolf de Bruin and his wife Heleen Pannekoek had considered for a winery when they emigrated from Holland, but heading into their 11th harvest, they’re already making their mark on BC’s rapidly developing wine scene at Fort Berens.
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More than half of all BC wineries are producing Rosé.
If you think you’ve been seeing more Rosé on the shelves in recent years, it’s not your imagination. Once dismissed as nothing more than a simple summer sipper, Rosé has seen a noticeable rise in demand thanks to an equally notable rise in quality and production. Rosé has consistently been one of the fastest growing retail wine categories in the world over the past few years. British Columbia is definitely not immune to this trend. Not only is consumer demand continuing to rise in our Province, local wineries are responding with more than half of those in BC now producing this popular pink elixir.
Read MoreThis month the #Winophiles are taking a look at French varieties made into wines around the world. While we could think of many examples from various regions we have visited, we want to shine a spotlight on our own backyard where the Okanagan Valley is making some truly world-class Chardonnay. (To read the other articles related to this month’s topic, please refer to the links at the end).
The beautiful vineyards at BC’s Blasted Church Winery.
Chardonnay has an association with Burgundy that is an unbreakable bond. That is simply because so many of the world’s most profound Chardonnay wines come from that region. The great wines of Puligny Montrachet, Chassagne Montrachet, Meursault and Chablis, among other Burgundy sub-regions, make the reference-point wines from the Chardonnay grape. But Chardonnay is a chameleon-like grape that has been successfully planted all over the world and shown its ability to adapt to new terroirs with the potential to make great wine outside of Burgundy as well as within. One of those regions that is rapidly gaining notice is the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada.
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