The Fort Wine Company

26151 84th Ave., Langley (near Fort Langley), 604-857-1101, www.thefortwineco.com
Features: fruit and dessert wine, garden patio, tours

Located on a cranberry farm not far from the Fraser River, and a short drive from the village of Fort Langley, the Fort Wine Company is a find. The beautifully woodsy tasting room includes a saloon-style bar, fireplace (for winter coziness), cafe area and store.

Sidle up to the bar to sample the fruit table wines and fortified dessert wines. There's no charge for tasting. All the wines, mostly made from fruits and berries of the Okanagan and Fraser valleys-have complexities we associate with conventional wines.

We enjoy the Green Apple Wine-dry, tart and yet also sweet. Then move on to the flagship cranberry wine-punchy yet "approachable," as they say in the trade, and a white Cranberry Wine-crisp and aromatic. (Cranberries are right at home in Fort Langley: in the late 1800s the fort did big business in the berry.)

Says pourer and manager Carol Zielke of the work of vintner Derrick Power: "We're picking up medals fast and furious." At the 2006 Northwest Wine Summit, Fort Wines took six medals, including a gold for its Gold Rush fortified wine made with peaches and apricots. At both the 2006 and 2005 All Canadian Wine Championships, the Iced Apple Dessert Wine came home with (an overall) gold.

The Wild West Blackberry port-style wine, made with wild berries from the Queen Charlotte Islands, is one of their most popular varieties, Zielke says.

You can enjoy a glass of wine and elaborate cheese plate, on a garden patio. There are also plant tours.

Vancouver Courier
Wednesday, July 12, 2006