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Winery Focus - Forbidden Fruit Winery, Cawston, BC
2007-05-05 05:48:00
This is the first of a continuous focus on individual fruit wineries throughout the world, the people, passion and what drives them to create their fruit wines in a grape wine world.The first winery I am writing about is one close to my heart as I have helped them with their product development of their award winning winery.Forbidden Fruit Winery is located on Ven 'Amour Organic Farms, a 147 acre certified organic tree fruit farm and nature estate. The winery is exclusive in using 100% certified organic tree fruits grown in the Similkameen Valley, BC, Canada. It is an outgrowth of the Similkameen’s tremendous dedication to organic farming. About 40 per cent of the farms in the valley are organic.It all began with Kim and Steve in 1981 on raw, virgin bench land along the Similkameen River. Ven 'Amour Organic Farms has been farmed organically since day one, in 1977. The farm was certified organic in 1984, the year certification began in B.C. The farm is family operated and the orc...
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Solving the Ellagic Acid Sediment Issue
2007-05-01 03:30:00
Anyone out there who has made raspberry wine or blackberry wine from commercially grown fruit in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington, Oregon) may have encountered some sedimentation in their wines a few months after bottling. It has happened to me a few times and after doing all the stability tests, making sure the wine is as stable as can be, it is very disheartening to find this sedimentation forming in the bottles.I have set out to understand what this problem which seemed to happen mostly with blackberry and to a lesser extent raspberry wine.After sending samples to a commercial wine lab in California (Vinquiry) I finally got to the bottom of this problem. Ellagic acid was the culprit....I would like to share some of the background information on this so that if you ever encounter this, you will not have to pull your hair out as much as I had to. Ellagic Acid is a phenolic compound that has become known as a potent anti-carcinogenic compound. It also has antibacterial and an...
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An Introduction to Canadian Fruit Wines
2007-04-29 09:06:00
The Canadian Fruit Wine industry is a thriving one. There are over 150 fruit wineries operating now in Canada and most of them do quite well. Every Canadian province has fruit wineries and most wine stores will have a selection.The modern fruit wine industry in Canada owes its popularity to commercial associations such as the Fruit Wines of Canada and Fruit Wines of Ontario who have done a tremendous job of promoting fruit wine consumption and the marketing of this kind of wine to the general wine drinker.The following is a very general overview of the Canadian fruit wine industry. I will write further about the Canadian industry in detail and the individual players in future entries.Overview of the Industry The Canadian fruit wine industry is very new, yet there are wineries in all Canadian provinces. In most cases, fruit winery operators had previously established roots in the hard or soft fruit business, such as fruit and vegetable stands, bulk-fruit distributors, maintaining ...
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In Japan, the Cranberry is king...
2007-04-23 15:34:00
In Japan the cranberry is king! Cran berry yogurt. Kellogg's Cornflakes with dried cranberries. Starbucks orange and cranberry muffins. Dried sweetened cranberries. Cranberry juice and a lot of cranberry wine from all cranberry producing region of North America. Japan is literally eating cranberries up. Last year, it consumed 160,000 barrels, a number that is expected to double or triple this year. The Japanese, who several years ago began, eating blueberries and drinking blueberry wine in record numbers, are turning to the tart berry for its health benefits and taste.U.S. agricultural officials in Tokyo are finding a receptive audience for their message that people should eat more cranberries and drink more cranberry juice and wine. The advertisements say cranberries help your kidneys and ... contain antioxidants. Cranberries are a hot product right now. Japan is seen as an untapped international market for cranberries products including wine. International markets are partic...
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Industry Tip#3 - VA in my wine..Yuck!
2007-04-20 16:42:00
I have recently had the unlucky chance of discovering a relatively high amount of volatile acid (VA) in one of the pear wines I produced. Although the wine is still usable with a small carbon treatment and some blending, it is not something winemakers ever like dealing with. Volatile acidity refers to the steam distillable acids present in wine, primarily acetic acid but also lactic, formic, butyric, and propionic acids. Commonly, these acids are measured by Cash Still. The average level of acetic acid in a new dry fruit wine is less than 400 mg/L, though levels may range from undetectable up to 3g/L.U.S. legal limits of Volatile Acidity: Red Table Wine 1.2 g/LWhite Table Wine 1.1 g/LFruit Wine: 1.1 g/LThe aroma threshold for acetic acid in a red fruit wine varies from 600 mg/L and 900 mg/L, depending on the variety and style. While acetic acid is generally considered bad (vinegar), some winemakers seek a low or barely detectible level of acetic acid to add to the perceived complexi...
More About: Industry , Yuck

How do Fruit Flies find your Wine Glass?
2007-04-19 04:53:00
The warming weather and the outdoor patio wine drinking season starting signals the start of many little pests springing out of nowhere. Uncork a bottle of your favourite raspberry wine outside in the summer and odds are good an annoying fruit fly will find your glass by the time the glass finds your lips. Turns out, this party crasher navigates using mathematical rules that maximize the chances it will locate your drink. “Wine is extraordinarily attractive to them,” said the new study’s co-author Mark Frye of UCLA. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the animal came from half a kilometre away.” Scientists have known that fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) use visual cues to make quick turns and prevent nasty collisions with nearby objects. “So we knew what was causing a fly to steer when it got close to things,” Frye said. The new study, published in the April issue of the journal PLoS ONE, reveals what they did not know: why the flies make swift twists and tu...
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Industry Tip #2 - Storage of Wine
2007-04-18 04:59:00
This "Industry Tip" deals with an important issue after all the hard work has been done growing the fruit, making the wine and properly bottling it. It is the proper storage of wine to make sure that all that hard work does not go to waste from poor handling of the finished product.The following will give you a general overview of the key factors. Do give me some feedback on if you find this kind of information helpful and I will keep posting more (or at least click on some of the ads on this site to support my efforts ;-).After wines are bottled in a winery, the wines will under go something called “Bottle-Shock” which will lower its aroma and taste intensity due to the severe treatment it has gone through the bottling process. The wine takes about two weeks to recover from that but it is by no means “bad” and can certainly be sold right off the bottling line as needed.After this shock period, the wines should be stored on their sides or upside down in their cases and stack...
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Industry Tip #1 - Choosing a good Fruit Winemaker
2007-04-17 03:02:00
To anyone out there looking at setting up a fruit winery or making fruit wines on a commercial basis, there are many issues to deal with and be up to date on. In this blog, I will periodically post some of these subjects online for the general good of the industry. I am in the process of writing an industry manual specific to fruit wines and will have that available in the near future. My first submission is on how to select a commercial fruit winemaker. These same guidelines are also good tips for someone aspiring to become a fruit winemaker.Here it goes…Selecting a winemaker, especially one that has good fruit winemaking experience is not an easy task. Most operators will probably wish and need to do most of the winemaking themselves but will need the help of either a full time, part-time or at least consultant winemaker depending on the size of their operation. The following describes the basic job of a winemaker (either owner/operator or hired winemaker):Winemaking is not simp...
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The State of Chinese Wines...
2007-04-13 05:35:00
The first annual China International Wine Forum was help recently in Beijing. It attracted most wine professionals from all over China and many parts of the wine producing world.It was a good forum, which outlined the tremendous growth of China’s wine industry and the increased investment and involvement by domestic and outside players.It was a good opportunity for me to meet winemakers and wine industry people from all over the world and make valuable contacts. I even had the chance to meet and chat with the president of the O.I.V. (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) Mr. Federico Castellucci. We discussed the present state of the Chinese wine industry and other issues.The event was also an opportunity to discuss as an industry the setting up of a national icewine production standard. This is needed, as the present state of icewine production is a mess with countless “fake” icewines in existence in the market. I did a technical speech on the subject, which I think wa...
More About: State , Wines , The State

Judging Wines in Shanghai
2007-04-12 03:36:00
Recently, I judged wines in Shanghai at the annual “China International Wine Challenge” which is an offshoot of the largest and most prestigious wine competition in the world called the “IWC” based out of London, UK. The competition was founded by world-renowned wine expert and writer Mr. Robert Joseph. I helped him organize the China chapter.In total, there were over 600 wines from all over the world including most of the 1st growths such as Chateaux Lafitte, Haut-Brion, Petrus, etc. The quality of the entries was spectacular and the judges were world class and famous wine professionals from all over.In China, it is not always easy to have access to high quality wines without forking over large sums of money. Imported wines here in China are very expensive and not always easy to find and even quality Chinese wines are simply not a good value compared to wines outside of China. Therefore, it is nice to be able to judge at a competition like this and get a chance to taste wha...
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Prowein = Good Wine
2007-04-11 08:11:00
Prowein, the semi annual congregation of the entire wine world occurred in Düsseldorf, Germany last month and I was there for a couple of days. Two busy days of talking to wine producers, distributors, tasting wines, looking at packaging and equipment.It was a very busy show and business was brisk। I was amazed at the innovation of packaging and marketing. In addition, I cannot say I tasted one bad wine there either. In this extremely competitive business, I guess you have to be innovative and produce excellent wine in order to survive.In terms of wine innovation, fruit based wines, coolers and brandies seem to be on the increase as well as quality ciders. There is a whole new class of consumers in Europe looking for transition alcoholic products and fruit seems to fit the bill.
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