CANADA'S FRUIT WINES
by Professor Hrayr Berberoglu.

February 12, 2005


On the average, wine enthusiasts think of grape wine as "the" wine. Yet many tender fruits and berries yield flavourful wines of good quality and may be of interest to many who like fruit more than alcohol per se.

Canada, along with Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the U S A is a major fruit wine producing country. Coast to coast there are 53 fruit wineries in this immense country and most produce respectable wines using apples, pears apricots, peach, and a several berries.

The most popular fruits are apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches. A few wineries bend several berry wines to create appealing and intriguiging taste dimensions.

All provinces except Nunavut and Yukon produce fruit wines. Newfoundland and Labrador are famous for blueberry and partridgeberry wines, and Prairie Provinces for their Saskatoon berry products. Ontario and British Columbia are the two largest fruit wine producers.

Contrary to what many believe, fruit wines are not always sweet. Many are dry, aromatic and contain approximately 12 percent alcohol by volume. Fruit wines taste of the fruit from which they are derived and tend to be less expensive than grape wines, and dessert quality sweet products are up to 50 percent less expensive than comparable grape wines.

In Canada all QC wines must be approved and bear a seal (QC). None may contain artificial flavouring and a panel of experts tastes all. Appearance, colour, aroma, balance and varietal character are evaluated before the wine is deemed worthy of the QC seal.

Dry fruit wines go well with fruit stuffed pork recipes, chicken and many others.

Framboise and iced apple are excellent with milk chocolates.

The classification categories are:

Iced fruit wine (sweet)
Dessert wine
Fortified wine
Sparkling fruit wine
Cider
Perry

Liquor control boards offer only a few fruit wines and those interested must make a special trip to the winery store. Some of the better-known fruit wineries in Ontario are:

Archibald Orchards and Estate Winery www.archibald-estatewinery.on.ca
County Cider Co. www.countycider.com
Cox Creek Cellars Estate Winery www.coxcreekcellars.on.ca
Magnotta Winery Corporation www.magnotta.com
Ocala Orchards Farm Winery Ltd. www.ocalawinery.com
Southrook Winery www.southbrook.com
Sunnybrook Farm Estate Winery www.sunnybrookfarmwinery.com

Magnotta's iced apple wine and Southbrook winery's raspberry (framboise) enjoy international fame. The latter's framboise is sold at London's famous Harrod's.

Hrayr Berberoglu took early retirement after lecturing on restaurant management and conducting wine, beer and spirits seminars for over a quarter of a century.

Now he consults and writes to increase wine, beer and liquor awareness. He conducts seminars and would be pleased to consider your requests. To peruse the list of his published books and order please contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3@sympatico.ca

Hryar Berberoglu www.littlefatwino.com