SEPTEMBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Blueberries find a home in wine at Baccata
Family-run winery emphasizes quality over quantity
by JACKIE PEARASE GRINDROD—Baccata Ridge
Winery is finding a small niche in the booming wine market with blueberries and honey. Some of the 11 acres of Draper blueberries under cultivation on the 44-acre property in Grindrod are sold as produce but most are used to make wine. “There’s such a short life with the blueberries that we were just trying to expand the use of them,” explains winery manager Michelle Robertson. “Some people think blueberries shouldn’t be wine but a lot of people are saying, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’ They are very open to it. It’s a unique taste but it’s also very good because it’s got a lot of health benefits – even more so than the red wine.” The wine selection at Baccata Ridge includes three varieties of blueberry wine with different levels of sweetness, including one with almost no residual sugar. “It is three pounds of blueberries per bottle in all our blueberry wines. It’s a lot of blueberries,” notes Robertson. “Most of the fruit wines have the reputation for being very, very sweet so the fact that we have one that isn’t – people are actually surprised by how dry it is.” Her brother Orlando
Robertson’s decade-long passion for beekeeping adds another layer of uniqueness to the winery. Honey from his bees is
used for a mead mix called Blueberry Buzz and two kinds of certified organic mead without added fruit. “The mead is definitely very
popular. All you need is a little bit and it can last in the fridge open for seven or eight weeks,” says Robertson. Using honey from 150 hives situated in the Grindrod area and 250 hives in organic alfalfa fields in Cache Creek, the mead is made with assistance from a Kelowna mead expert.
The small winery has
existed for 13 years but the Robertson’s parents, Kathy Wessel and Dave Robertson, took it over in September
2016 after their partnership with the previous owner dissolved.
“He had a health scare and he pulled out,” explains Robertson. “My parents bought him out three years ago.”
The winery moved to the
family’s property on Monk Road at the end of that season but the Gewürztraminer, Ortega, Siegerrebe, Gamay Noir and Zweigelt grapes used for its four types of cool- climate wines continue to come from the original winery property just over the hill on Enderby-Grindrod Road. Robertson’s sister, Samantha Verbeek, used her experience as a horticulturist to plant the blueberries seven years ago and she quickly learned the winemaking craft when the family took on full ownership. “My sister rapidly became a winemaker and learned from (the previous owner) and she took a course in Kelowna,” says Robertson. “She did a whole season with him and she did very well with that.”
The family homestead near the end of a dead-end road provides a serene and lushly beautiful setting for the winery and rustic tasting room. A wooden gazebo by a 40-
foot-deep pond stocked with rainbow trout turns the flood plain into the ideal spot for an afternoon picnic or even a wedding – something Robertson is exploring. Baccata Ridge products are sold in some North Okanagan liquor outlets and Robertson is planning a road trip to promote their wines in Kamloops, Kelowna and Vancouver this winter. She would like to grow the small winery but says being small and unique is a comfortable fit for her family. “We like making stuff that
we like to eat. We don’t have a ton of quantity but the quality is there. All our blueberries are hand-picked, spray-free. We don’t put anything on there that we wouldn’t eat ourselves,” she adds. “We’re never going to be a Mission Hill but we like making stuff that we enjoy. We like doing quality.”
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Michelle Robertson says wine lovers are pleasantly surprised with the mead and blueberry wines from the family-run Baccata Ridge Winery. JACKIE PEARASE PHOTO
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