The Daily Fruit Wine

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3

Shillong Wine Festival Gains Global Tag
2007-11-12 01:43:00
Shillong, India: There is a saying in New York that when a man takes his date to a restaurant and orders a bottle of Chateau Margaux, he must be ready to pop the question.After all, when you spend $402 on a glass of wine, you will have little left in your purse for another date for at least the next three months!But for the simple thirsty soul who can look beyond his Chateau Margaux, which is as much about snob factor as taste, events like the Shillong Wine Festival are fast becoming must-visits, accompanied by Bacchus’s brothers from across the globe.Global and Shillong wine?Before you choke, hear what Swedish tourist Ionis has to say.Ionis arrived in this hill town last week with one agenda — to see, feel and taste Shillong’s very own sohiong wine.Last evening, Ionis had his fill of the famous wine made from black cherries — sohiong is the local name of the fruit — surrounded by wine-makers and connoisseurs, at the All Saints’ Hall where the fourth Shillong Wine Festiv...

Going beyond the grape: Making wine from exotic fruits
2007-11-11 11:12:00
Fruit Wine story from Indonesia...By: Yohan HandoyoIt was around a year ago, after a sop buntut lunch at the legendary Warung Pondok Indah in Bogor, that a friend of mine, J.L. Nawan, gave me this suspicious golden liquid in a half-empty Marjan syrup bottle with a small-hand written label on it that read "rambutan wine"."You should try it, Pak. I love it so much. And if you want, I can introduce you to the winemaker" he said. Well, frankly, I was not that convinced at the time.Of all the wines that I have tried, fruit wine has always intrigued me. It sounds so exotic, but it is rare to find here in Indonesia, and to be honest I know very little about it. Therefore, I would never miss the opportunity to taste fruit wine no matter how unconvincing it may look.When I was visiting Thailand few years ago, I sampled mangosteen wine that look like normal red wine but tasted wildly different. At the Wine for Asia Expo last year, one of the busiest booths was a mango wine producer from the N...
More About: Fruits , Going , The G , Goin

Cider drinkers out to give Brussels a headache
2007-11-08 01:43:00
Apple wine, the tangy drink famed for its thumping hangovers, is fuelling a crucial election campaign in Germany, pitting regional patriots against the bureaucrats of Brussels .The European Commission wants to strip the wine label from bottles of the cider-like drink, known locally as Ebbelwoi, on the ground that it is not made from grapes. Yet Ebbelwoi has been drunk, and marketed as wine, since the 16th century in the state of Hesse.It is part of the region’s historical identity and tourist trade. Tens of thousands of visitors to Frankfurt travel to the apple-wine cellars and taverns of nearby Sachsenhausen to sample the drink, which usually contains between 5 and 7 per cent alcohol. It is often drunk with sugary lemonade, hence the headaches and a reputation, especially among Asian tourists, for loosening the bowels.“We cannot allow this history, this original Hessian product, to be robbed of its tradition by a change of name ordained from above,” Martin Heil, manager of a l...
More About: Give , Headache

EU is set to agree a deal on fruit wines
2007-11-08 01:29:00
An update on the EU reform on fruit wines...great news for us Fruit Wine lovers...EUROPE is on the verge of siding with vintners who say that alcohol made from apples and berries is just as much wine as that made from grapes, diplomats said yesterday.Hot on the heels of a row over what constitutes vodka, the European Commission is grappling with another beverage battle over use of the word "wine" on labels.Advert for The Scotsman Digital ArchiveMakers of fruit wines, in particular Germany's Apfelwein (apple wine) producers, are unhappy with proposals to restrict wine to grape beverages, as part of reforms of the bloc's 1.3 billion (£905 million) wine industry."The commission will probably allow berries and apples to be included," a European Union diplomat said. "It is unlikely to sacrifice the overall goal for such a small compromise."A spokesman for Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's agricultural minister, hinted that a deal might be struck before the end of the year.Ms Fischer Boe...
More About: Deal , Wines

Fruit Wine Reform in Europe...Yeah!
2007-11-06 01:35:00
Interesting times in the fruit wine industry in Europe . Let's hope bureaucracy will not ruin things for those of us that feel that a wine can be a wine whether it is made from apples, grapes or peaches... BRUSSELS, Belgium -Following protests from Germany and northern nations, "wine" made from apples and berries could survive the reform of the European Union's bloated wine sector, officials said Monday.Makers of fruit wines, which represent only a small part of the overall sector, have raised loud protests since the EU Commission proposed restricting the definition of wine to grapes, in line with international convention."We are fully aware of the political importance of the issue," EU farm spokesman Michael Mann said.But Germany, which has a traditional "apple wine" industry, thinks it will become a victim by omission. "Apfelwein," a cider-like brew, is specifically popular in and around Germany's financial center, Frankfurt.In the German state of Hessen, the issue has even been...
More About: Wine , Fruit , Reform , Yeah

More Than Just a Hint of Peach
2007-10-23 13:31:00
Ontario's fruit vintners want a better deal for libations from the orchard and berry patchBy: Catherine Porter If Bert Andrews gets his way, you'll be able to pick up a bottle of white currant wine to complement that free-range chicken you buy at a farmers' market next spring.Andrews is among a group of farmers and vintners lobbying the province to let them sell fruit wines alongside their vegetables at farmers' markets as a way to expand their small sales and give them some of the advantages enjoyed by their big brothers, the grape wineries. It's also a perfect fit for the growing local food movement. "You don't get more local than this," says Andrews, scrawling the date on boxes of blackcurrant wine made on his fruit/vegetable farm near Milton. "There's an LCBO in every small town throughout the province, and most of the wine they sell comes from foreign countries."But the idea has got caught in the gears of Queen's Park bureaucracy. It's been under "active consideration"...
More About: Peach

Fruit Sparkling Wine is Extremely Popular in Japan
2007-10-19 20:34:00
In Japan , fruit wines have always been popular. Any wine store or wine section of a Japanese supermarket will have a relatively large fruit wine section.Now the rage in Japan is sparkling fruit wines. I will let the following article speak for itself:Source: July 9th, 2007 Yomiuri Shinbun Newspaper article translated to English.How would you like a refreshing sweet drink on a hot muggy night? Right now fruit flavoured beverages such as mango, strawberry, etc. are very popular. Champagne is famous for sparkling (bubbly) wines. In the past, the sparkling wine image was that it was drunk on special occasions such as weddings or Christmas dinner. Recently however, the wine has become very fashionable among young woman as an affordable luxury item whose crisp summer time taste, refreshing bubbles, and golden colour make people feel very elegant. Champagne ‘gardens’, (similar to beer gardens) have opened; female oriented fashion magazines have highlighted the “morning champagne” ...
More About: Wine , Fruit , Popular , Sparkling Wine

A Real Florida Wine!
2007-10-02 08:45:00
Lychee wine?I know it sounds kind of odd, but, really, what could be more Floridian than wines made with tropical fruits?That’s the premise behind Schnebly, a new winery in Homestead — yes, it’s the southernmost winemaker in the United States — that produces mango, carambola, passion fruit, guava and lychee wines. I’ve been hearing all kind of things about the place and I keep meaning to visit it for a tour. But a while back I was fortunate enough to find its lychee wine at Whole Foods. I put the bottle in the fridge, then forgot all about it.Until a couple of nights ago.What a nice surprise! To be sure, it’s got the flavor of lychees — probably my favorite tropical fruit, with a taste that’s both nutty and sweet. But I find a little more character to this wine than your standard, over-the-top fruit wine. I’m not sure I’d want it as the accompaniment to any kind of meal, but it makes a class act of an after-dinner drink, especially on a warm South Florida early f...
More About: Wine , Real

The Mad Dream of One Cowboy - Fruit Wine in Saskatchewan
2007-09-26 02:29:00
Fruit wine in Saskatchewan , the bread basket of Canada? Why not? I know of at least two more fruit wineries in the province and one more that is due to open its doors mid-next year. Here is a great article by Ron Petrie:Eyebrows no doubt cocked at the aspirations of Maple Creek rancher Marty Bohnet when, during the suffocating politics of the BSE trade dispute, as cattlemen turned to off-farm jobs, door-to-door beef sales -- anything to preserve a livelihood -- he and his wife Marie similarly changed course, cashing out their share of a three-family operation to establish:A commercial winery.Deep in the heart of Saskatchewan cattle country.Crazy?Crazy like this past summer, when their Cypress Hills Vineyard and Wine ry in its first season attracted business beyond all expectation, redirecting the Bohnets' worries from whether the venture would work to what next they will need to manage the operation to maturity. As reputation of the new winery spread to the nearby Cypress Hills inte...
More About: Fruit , Cowboy , Dream

Diamond Ridge Winery is 'Berry, Berry' Good
2007-09-24 02:29:00
By Lisa Brainardfor Republican-LeaderOn a picturesque hilltop between Lanesboro, Peterson, Highland and Bratsberg, a new winery is making its mark on the international scene with delightful flavors concocted from local fruits.Kerry Lea and family started Diamond Ridge Winery eight years ago. In the past four years they've picked up medals at the prestigious Indiana International Wine Competition.In 2007, the winery picked up a silver medal for its HoneyCrisp wine, "the sweetest apple fermented delicately," and a second silver for its Hot Lips wine.Hot Lips shows some of Lea's creativity, showcasing homegrown jalapeno peppers in blended varieties of grapes or, as Lea promotes it, "Taste the jalapeno without the burn."Also at the competition in 2007, Lea received bronze medals for Valhalla wine, a "heavenly blend of Minnesota grapes," and Red Diamond, a heavy raspberry wine.In 2005, the White Diamond (select apple varieties from Pepin Heights Orchard, Lake City, and available sweet ...
More About: Berry , Good

The Virtues of Fruit Wines
2007-09-22 13:04:00
Consumers have had increased awareness of the benefits of wine, especially with the advent of the French Paradox. The French Paradox refers to the connection between France's low coronary heart disease mortality rates and the regular consumption of red wine.This increased interest in human health, nutrition and disease prevention has enlarged consumer demand for functional foods. These functional foods provide a health benefit that goes beyond basic nutrition.Dr. Vasantha Rupasinghe, assistant professor and Tree Fruit Bio-Product Research Chair at Nova Scotia Agricultural College, took this research to a new and different level. A collaboration between NSAC and the University of Guelph, the study attempted to determine basic health-related constituents present in 10 categories of fruit wines and compare them with those in traditional wines.Dr. Rupasinghe says that despite the strong epidemiological and other scientific evidence to support the health benefits of red wine, some peopl...
More About: Wines

The Unbearable Lightness of Fruit Wine
2007-09-15 15:02:00
Excellent article by Chris Koentges (and doing wonder's for my ego ;-) publlished in the Calgary Herald. What happens when you're not in love with Field Stone fruit wines, the only wine made in Alberta, let alone near Calgary? You drink it anyway!On a crisp autumn morning, east of the city along the Trans-Canada, you drift past farms and barns and cattle and pump jacks. It's blue and bright, flat and open. Grain elevators hang onto the earth like rotting teeth. You drift past the turnoff to Drumheller. Past an Esso Station. Past the Strathmore town limits. A patch of motels. A graveyard. Then, 52 kilometres from wherever they measure Calgary now, at highway 817, you hang a right.At that exact east-west line in Alberta, the climate actually changes. Summer nights are warmer along this road. Winter's less erratic. It can be 10 degrees in Calgary, but one degree right here. There are no Chinooks to thaw the ground. Thawing is bad for what they grow along this line, which is fruit. ...
More About: Wine , Fruit , Bear

Papaw Wine Anyone??
2007-09-13 03:54:00
I thought I know a lot about fruit and today after reading this article by Bill Chronister, I had proof that your learn something everyday. I have had a lot of strange or I should say "unique" wine before but never wines made with papaw fruit. Now I am very curious... read on..."It's the 'Midwestern tropical fruit,' " said Magdiale Wolmark, chef and co-owner of Dragonfly Neo-V Cuisine, a Short North restaurant."It's known as the 'Indiana banana,' " said Bob O'Neil of the Undercover Market in Athens."In the 1920s, papaw was called the 'poor man's banana,' " said Chris Chmiel, an Albany, Ohio, farmer and self-proclaimed eco-entrepreneur. "It's North America's largest native-tree fruit. It can weigh over a pound."Those who have tramped through the woods or even semirural areas in the East and Midwest have seen papaws on their spindly, foliage-challenged trees. The fruits, which ripen in late summer or early fall, look like elongated pears and grow in small clusters.Because...
More About: Wine

Pour a Sweet Surprise with B.C. Fruit Wines
2007-09-12 03:06:00
I started my fruit winemaking career in British Columbia over 11 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Back then, fruit wines had a terrible reputation and it was a hard sell even trying to convince people to try them. Now things are a lot different and people go out of their way to try and buy fruit wines. Quality has increased exponentially and so has the reputation.This article by Geoff Last of the Calgary Herald is a nice expression of what is going on in the Western Canada fruit wine industry, read on: As most of you know, grapes are not the only source for the production of wine. It can be made from just about anything with fermentable juice and sugars.Over the years I have tasted wine made from all sorts of fruit with fairly consistent results, which is to say drinkable but typically over-sweet and a little weird.The oddest, by far, was a bottle of snake wine -- a lovely gift from a friend returning from China -- that was reputed to, how shall I say, raise the spirits o...
More About: Fruit , Sweet , Wines

King of the Amateurs
2007-09-11 05:47:00
The following article reminds the days when I made wine as an amateurs, making wine our of dandelions, rhubarb and what ever berry seemed to grow in our backyard or road sides... When it come to amateur wine competitions, a lot of friendly jockeying for the top spot is part of the fun.A good read by Cassandra A. Fortin:Robert Jefferson is prepared to vindicate his title.Four of the past five years, he won the Best of Show in an amateur wine making competition. Last year he tied with Greg Sliviak. Although it didn't start out that way, Jefferson has become the man to beat."I never know how I'm going to do when I get there, but I guess I've managed to do OK," said Jefferson, 65, of Hampstead. "I think everyone wants to beat me now."The competition is part of a 24-year-old tradition - the Maryland Wine Festival - that will be held Sept. 15 and Sept. 16in Westminster at the Carroll County Farm Museum.Started in 1984, the wine festival, scheduled to include 18 of the state's 30 winer...
More About: King , Amateurs

It's Healthy to Drink Fruit Wine! Studies prove it...
2007-09-05 11:14:00
A new study confirms winemakers' beliefs that fruit wines have potential positive health benefits.In a recent study, scientists emphasized that Ontario's Fruit Wine s have positive health benefits. The study conducted by the Guelph Center for Functional Foods, Laboratory Services at the University of Guelph by Dr. Vasantha Rupasinghe and his colleagues, was initiated to determine whether fruit wines possess basic health related constituents in comparison to traditional wines.Scientists collected 10 major categories of fruit wines, red, white and ice wines, and tested them for a number of health promoting constituents (total phenolic content, total antioxidant capacity and mineral elements) as well as health problem causing constituents, namely histamines. The study concluded that total antioxidants and phenolics are the highest in red (grapes), elderberry, blueberry, and black currant wines, moderate in cherry, raspberry, cranberry, and plum wines and lowest in apple, peach, ice (g...
More About: Studies , Drink , Healthy

Health Benefits of Fruit Wines
2007-09-02 05:26:00
I have been on a bit of a health kick lately so I thought I would dedicate the next couple of posts to why drinking fruit wine is not only good for pleasure but also for your health.The health benefits of moderate drinking as been known for years. Eating fruits daily is also very beneficial to ones health. As most quality fruit wines are made from pure fruit, the wines we love have many of the benefits of traditional grape wines as well as eating fresh fruit.It is no secret that eating more fruits and vegetables can help you live a longer, healthier life. Everyday or so, scientific research sheds more light on the benefits of phytonutrients. These naturally occurring plant compounds function within your body to help boost your immune system and fight disease. Cranberry Heal th ResearchCranberries have elevated levels of phytonutrients, and many have antioxidant activity.Cardiovascular Health: Research shows that cranberries have the ability to decrease total cholesterol and LDL, or...
More About: Fruit , Benefits , Wines

You won’t find grapes at this Connecticut winery
2007-08-22 09:27:00
I love stories like this. The one like the "Little Winery that Could"... I am very glad to see that the fruit wine industry in Connecticut is growing fast. Now at 27 wineries and a lot of them being fruit wineries, this gives me one more reason to visit!SHERMAN, Conn. – White Silo Farm and Winery isn’t very big or elaborate.There are no 300-gallon fermentation bins, no oak barrels for aging, no fancy corking or bottling machinery.In fact, there are no grapes. Not one single grape.Instead, there are raspberry and blackberry bushes, black currant shrubs, cherry trees and rhubarb plants.That’s because the small, family-owned business is a fruit winery, tucked away along the border of Connecticut and New York. And in the last five years, it has become part of a sharp growth of specialty and traditional wineries in Connecticut and across the nation.Wineries in Connecticut have more than doubled in the last six years, from 11 to 27, according to statistics compiled by the National A...
More About: Grapes , Find

Bottling Up Summer!
2007-08-21 09:16:00
Its a busy time at fruit wineries all over the Northern Hemisphere these days. Not only is it busy because wines are being produced from the plentiful fruit being harvested in the summer months but also busy with sales to the public and packaging wines ready to bottle and ship to all these thirsty fruit wine lovers.Well the following is an interesting article of what goes on in a fruit winery during this busy time of year. I like this article quite a bit because the author did a nice plug for yours truly...read on...Shelley Boettcher, Calgary HeraldPublished: Sunday, August 19, 2007I can feel my cheeks turning red. I'm starting to panic, and I'm afraid I'm going to lose a finger. Or worse, someone else's finger.I'm trying to run the corking machine at Field Stone Fruit Wines in Strathmore. It's bottling day, and the winery owners and family -- three generations -- have gathered to bottle a new vintage of strawberry wine.I've volunteered to help, as it's a labour-intensive da...
More About: Summer

Winemaking Goes Beyond Vinifera
2007-08-10 09:00:00
A great synopsis of the whole fruit winemaking industry. This will make you understand the basic process of fruitwinemaking and the growing industry behind it.Written by Alison Crowe:Humankind has been producing alcoholic beverages from fruit for perhaps 10,000 years. Though most people think of grapes when they think of wine, most of the states and provinces of North America have commercial wineries that make fruit wines or, at the very least, grape wines flavored with fruit essences or concentrates. The vast majority of these wineries are in Canada, British Columbia, or the East Coast and the Midwest of the United States, places where the traditional vitis vinifera wine grapes don’t grow well. Rather than lamenting what they can’t have, many fruit wine producers celebrate their unique local offerings. Michigan is known regionally for its cherry wines, while the island of Maui is home to Tedeschi Vineyards, which puts out a successful and nationally distributed line of exotic ...
More About: Makin , Goes

Turning Apples - and Berries and Peaches and Maple Syrup - Into Wine
2007-08-01 08:23:00
Interesting post by Sheryl Kirby for the Taste T.O. website:I know nothing about regular wine. I spent much of my adult life fighting off allergies that came to a head while I lived in a house with a serious but unknown mold problem. Wine – red or white – killed me. Besides the inevitable headaches (migraines, really), I’d also become slightly anaphylactic – getting stuffed up and uncomfortable. A relative turned me on to blueberry wine from down east. Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia all have wineries that make various styles of blueberry wine, and where the grape-based wines made me all kinds of miserable, it turns out that wine from other fruits does not contain the histamines present in grape wines, and I could drink to my heart’s content. Except that the availability of fruit wines in the LCBO is minimal with only about a half dozen on offer – mostly dessert wines - and often only seasonally. So when I discovered that the Ontario Wine Society was h...
More About: Peaches , Berries , Maple Syrup , Apples

This farmer has something to smile about...
2007-07-24 15:58:00
This article is not about fruit wine or non-grape growers, however it is great news for Chinese farmers generally as wine consumption is growing fast in China and that includes fruit wine consumption. BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China's wine output has been growing by 15 percent annually in the recent three years, meaning more job opportunities and better lives of many Chinese farmers. Driven by soaring wine demand, the grape planting bases in Shandong, Hebei, Gansu, Xinjiang and Ningxia have been expanding quickly, creating more job opportunities for local farmers and increasing their income, said a report of the China National Wine Quality Supervision and Inspection Center. According to the report, there are 46 wine companies in Penglai of east China's Shandong Province. More than 30,000 farmers are planting grapes for the companies. Xintian International Liquor Company Ltd. in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has 10,005 hectares of planting areas. The c...
More About: Smile , Farmer , Some

More Fruit Wine in the News!
2007-07-21 05:35:00
Very Good articles on fruit wine seem to be in vogue these days. That a great sign and the word is spreading. Read on...RIPE TIME FOR FRUIT WINEDerrick Schneider, The San Francisco ChronicleClose your eyes and picture the landscape of wine country: gangly persimmon trees pushing orange fruit to the sky; fluffy blackberry bushes squatting by a fence; tufted mango groves topped with bristly heads of long, pointy leaves. You imagined something else? Talking about wine conjures up images of grapevines arranged in neat rows on a sunlit slope. Humans tamed grapes earlier than most fruits, and over the millennia we bred good wine into their DNA. A ripe wine grape's sugar - the highest level of any other member of the berry family that includes fruits from melons to blueberries - yields about 11 percent alcohol even at moderate levels of ripeness, and most good wine regions get even more sugar than that. The tartaric acid found almost exclusively in grapes helps give wine its charact...
More About: News , Wine , Fruit , In the News , The News

Fruit and Berry Wines are Moneymakers...
2007-07-17 17:55:00
Very Interesting Article I found today. Not Forbidden Fruit by Richard Paul Hinkle Santa Rosa, Calif. -- Years ago, Richert & Sons in the Santa Clara Valley of California offered a string of excellent fruit and berry wines--including strawberry, apricot, plum, pomegranate and kiwi. Good as they were, sales always lagged. "If I can get folks to taste 'em, they'll buy," complained owner Scott Richert. Getting people to taste them, that was the hardest sell.That remains true. "The best producer of fruit wines in the Midwest is Fred Koehler, over at Lynfred Winery, just west of O'Hare International," asserted Sterling Pratt, long time wine director at the Chicago area's Schaefer's Wine & Foods. "Fred knows how important it is for customers to actually taste the wines, so he put in a bed-and-breakfast at the winery and has a very extensive tasting room program to acquaint people with his wines. It helps that, unlike other fruit wine producers, he doesn't use 'seconds' or 'culls...
More About: Berry , Wines

The Best Cider I have ever Had!
2007-07-14 05:20:00
Last month while I was traveling in Southern Ontario, I stopped for a visit at Sunnybrook Farms Estate Winery to taste their range of quality fruit wines. The winery was the first quality fruit winery in Canada, established in 1993. I tried their apple cider and was blown away!Sunnybrook Farm Estate Winery is owned and operated by Gerald and Vivien Goertz. Gerald was born and raised in Niagara-on-the-Lake and has been involved in fruit growing in Niagara-on-the-Lake all of his life. Sunnybrook Farm initially consisted of 35 acres of peaches, cherries, plums, pears, and apple along the southern shore of Lake Ontario at Four Mile Creek on what was once a large river delta. The deep sandy loam soil and the temperature moderating effect of the Niagara Escarpment is ideal for growing the over 20 varieties of fruit produced on the farm. The winery currently produces about 3,500 cases of a wide variety of peach, pear, apple, plum, apricot, and berry wines, including distinctive iced fru...
More About: Cide

Fruit Icewine: The new "Must Try" wine!
2007-07-05 06:38:00
The other day I was sitting at the Montreal, Canada airport lounge situated opposite the Duty Free shop and was astounded at what I was noticing in front of me. I was observing crowds of people cueing at the tills to be able to pay for their numerous bottles of wine before they get on their flights to destinations all over the world. The wine of choice and what was by far being purchased the most was fruit icewine locally made in the province. This style of fruit wine is literally flying off the shelves! Fruit icewine is one of the most interesting phenomenons occurring in the commercial fruit winemaking industry today. The emergence of ice fruit wines made through cryo-extraction or the freeze fractioning method is being noticed on a worldwide basis with premium wines such as apple icewine now being available at duty free shops in most international airports and in fine wine shops throughout Asia. These wines are on par with their grape based icewine cousins in terms of sweet...
More About: Wine

Fruit Wine in Alberta Cattle Country? You Bet!
2007-06-07 08:18:00
When we think of Albert a , we think of prairies, wheat, cows and oil, right? Think again, Alberta is also a winemaking province responsible for producing quality fruit wines from the excellent fruit that also grows in this unique Canadian province. One such winery is Fieldstone Fruit Wine s, located in Strathmore, Alberta which is about a 40 minute drive east of the burgeoning city of Calgary. Field Stone Fruit Wines, is Alberta's first cottage winery, and opened in July of 2005. The winery sits on 50 acres of mature berry orchards. All the wines are 100% produced from their luscious crops of raspberries, strawberries, wild black cherries and Saskatoon berries. For many years, it has been a popular “u-pick” orchard has been known for its exceptional fruit, harvesting extra-sweet berries using biological farming principles. Prairie berries such as the Wild Cherry or the Saskatoon berry make truly excellent wine both in table wine version as well as fortified or dessert wine ...
More About: Country

Korean Fruit Wine = Traditional and Yummy!
2007-05-28 05:11:00
I was in South Korea last week and had the chance to taste several well made Korean Fruit wines. By far the most popular are the traditional Korean berry liqueurs made from blackberries and raspberries. They are made in a light “port” style. That is fermented part-way, then fortified to about 15% alcohol. Very tasty indeed. Another popular fruit wine available in Korea is the plum wines with small plums actually in the bottles. Podojui is made from rice wine that is mixed with locally grown grapes. The most popular fruit wines are made from maesil plums, Chinese quinces, cherries, pine fruits, and pomegranates. Koreans have the second largest rate of alcoholic beverage consumption per capita (after Russia). Fruit wine production and consumption has a long history in that country. Most Korean families also make a traditional fruit wine by steeping local fruits in “Soju” and drink at holiday seasons. It was interesting to see that and if brings to mind of the enormous pot...
More About: Wine , Yummy , Traditional

Promoting your Wine Brand = $$$
2007-05-10 03:30:00
Do not underestimate the power of brand. A successful wine brand is the ambassador of the winery. It is what customers know and remember. After some time, a brand can also have a significant value attached to it and have a longer life span than the operators or even the business. All marketing efforts should be focused about promoting this brand, what it signifies and represents, the story and people behind the brand. Building maintaining a good brand image should be a priority. Make wine that people want to buy. Making wine that you like is important but the operator should also make sure that the majority of people drinking it like it or else getting repeat business will be very difficult. In depth market analysis before commencing production is important. Experience tells us that making fruit wines that are very dry do not have the same marketability as wines that are made in the off-dry or sweet styles. Discussions with an experienced fruit winemaker should be conducted pri...
More About: Wine , Promoting , Brand , Romo

Fruit Wines in the News...
2007-05-07 03:58:00
This tropical fruit winery has been getting a lot of positive media attention lately. Always good to see as it reflects the fast growing interest in fruit wines. I will write more about this winery in the coming weeks...From NBC News (South Florida):Couple Touts 'Agrotourism' With Tropical Wine 05/06/2007 -- When most people plan a trip to South Florida, they imagine world-class beaches, international fashion designers and hot Latin sounds.But one couple is using wine made from tropical fruit to lure visitors away from the beach to experience other aspects of South Florida's natural beauty.Instead of using grapes, Peter and Denisse Schnebly are embracing Florida's agricultural strengths by making wine from fruits such as carambola and lychee that won't grow in cooler climates.The Schneblys started selling their wine in 2005 to cut the waste from their tropical fruit orchards. They now farm about 100 acres in the Redland area west of Homestead.They got the idea to make wine a fe...
More About: Fruit , In the News , The News , Wines