The three Canadian Prairie Provinces are not likely the first place one would think of when contemplating wine regions, but there exists a simmering of cottage wineries in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba whose abbreviated capacity and dogged determination make them especially worthy of your warm embrace. Far from the realm of train tours and valley experiences offered by the larger grape wine vintners, these family-run bottlers of pride and joy celebrate their sui generis medley of anything but.
Using a myriad of home grown berries, flowers, and fruits, to those that choose to spawn mead (wine using honey rather than fruit as its principal base) prairie wineries are enjoying an upswing in curiosity and acceptance as social occasions look to add a bit of a twist to the insipid array of grape wines.
So, polish up your stemware and prepare your palate for a vacation from the ordinary as we emprise
this lesser known sphere of oenology.
Of all the prairie fruits, the Saskatoon Berry is the most widely recognized. Saskatoons are a hearty berry that can be found growing wild throughout many regions of Canada and were readily used by aboriginals as a staple in their diet and for their medicinal needs.
Lake Saskatoon Winery near Grande Prairie, Alberta bills itself as the World’s Most Northern Winery and offers up a selection of mostly, you probably guessed it, Saskatoon Berry wines, but also produces a line of Sour Cherry wines.
As you likely have already learned by now, the world without bees would be a world without food. Bees are responsible for pollenating the majority of crops on the third rock from the sun, and it occupies a prominent position within the wine making industry on Canada’s prairies as well. While many of the wineries herein use honey as one of their ingredients, both Birds and Bees Winery and Chinook Honey Co. use it almost exclusively as their main ingredient.
Chinook Honey Co. of Okotoks, Alberta uses a 14th century recipe in preparing its Vanilla Bochet, an after dinner mead with tastes of roasted marshmallow, caramel, and apricot. Its King Arthur Dry is a blend of clover honey and alfalfa, perfectly paired with poultry, and its Black and Blue Melomel made from Black Currants and Blueberries is the bee`s knees for a pre-dinner sip or splashed in a sangria.
Playing up to its moniker,
Birds and Bees Winery of Brasseau, Alberta is the cheekiest of all, offering fun and risqué wine names such as Little Flirt Rhubarb, Kinky Cranberry, and Big Tease Raspberry. After a Roll in the Hay (another temptation), one might need to confess with their Honey I Have Meads. For that all-in-one burst, there is the Multi Berry Orgasm, which, as its name implies, is comprised of both a mix of berries and is ultra-satisfying. Using products grown on its own organic farm, Birds and Bees Winery takes a naughty but nice approach to viniculture to new heights. Never let it be said that The Big O couldn`t be used to describe a wine.
Rigby Orchards of Killarney, Manitoba is that province’s only winery. It can be lonely on the prairies. Growing organic raspberries, Grant Rigby`s fruit wine was served to the Royals on their visit to the province in 2002. This is perhaps the rarest wine in our list, as Rigby Orchards seems to sell out of its entire production each year.
Field Stone Fruit Wines of Strathmore, Alberta holds the distinction as Alberta`s first cottage winery, mashing its first piece of fruit in 2005. Not only did Field Stone pop the cherry on the industry in Alberta, it rapidly became the largest, most awarded, and most widely distributed of our list. Currently offering ten varieties of fruit and dessert wine, its Black Currant Fruit Wine pairs nicely with beef and lamb, its Bumble Berry Fruit Wine splendidly accompanies ethnic foods, and its Strawberry-Rhubarb Fruit Wine is a delight with salads or sitting by the lake.
Barr Estate Winery of Strathcona County, Alberta (near Sherwood Park) offers the fewest wines of our compilation, with just two, one a raspberry called The Other Red using only hand-picked fruit, and the other simply called The Barb, using red rhubarb to create a pale coral wine. Their sheep keep the grass mowed and the soil fertile.
It wouldn`t be fair to exclude ice wines from your prairie winery excursion. After all, the Canada`s prairies are covered in its own ice age for what seems an eternity every year.
Living Sky Winery of Perdue, Saskatchewan makes an Iced Cantaloupe Dessert Wine available by special order, in addition to producing a line of fruit table wines including Rhubarb, Currant, Chokecherry, Cherry, and others. Owners Sue Echlin and Vance Lester were named Canada`s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2012.
Cypress Hills Vineyard and Winery of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan offer a robust selection of grape and non-grape fruit wines. Its Chokecherry is sweet, making it excellent with desserts such as baked cheesecake and dark chocolate. All things should be made so appropriately. Its Mead is produced using light Saskatchewan honey and has a refreshing, nutty finish, making it yummy with ice cream, fresh melon, or dark chocolate.
With wines sporting bold names such as Saskwatch, Dande, Yee Haw!, Redneck, Bonfire, and Bastard,
Spirit Hills Honey Winery of Millarville, Alberta takes this ancient art a step further in producing a dandelion wine and a wild rose wine. The Bonfire recipe available on their web presence sounds absolutely delicious as a warmed mulled wine, promising to warm one`s heart after a day of skiing, toboganning, or playing hockey. You know you`re Canadian when…
Shady Lane Estate Winery of Barrhead, Alberta produces Strawberry-based wine without the use of herbicides and pesticides, and without adding sulphites. Small batches equals attention to quality.
Expect a price tag in the $20 range for most bottles from our list of prairie wineries, although some can fetch more than double that. Some may find the cost prohibitive, but think of it as an investment in a sustainable prairie economy and in your experiential odyssey into oenology.
For your next staycation, you might consider visiting the wineries on Canada`s prairies. Be warned though, it`s not like visiting Napa, or the Okanogan, or Tuscany, or other more noted wine regions as these wineries are not generally within immediate commuting distance of each other. Some of these wineries offer tours during certain hours, others by appointment only, so it will take some careful planning to map an educational and scrumptious tour.
Availability of the wines featured herein is mixed. Some can be delivered directly by the winery within their province of origin. Others enjoy a regular listing by provincial liquor jurisdictions. Below is a listing of websites for each of the wineries cited so you can learn about the aforementioned as well as other offerings from these fine examples of prairie agriculture ingenuity.
Barr Estate Winery
Birds and Bees Winery
Chinook Honey Co.
Cypress Hills Vineyard and Winery
Field Stone Fruit Wines
Lake Saskatoon Winery
Living Sky Winery
Rigby Orchards - no website available
Shady Lane Estate
Spirit Hills Winery
