In the winemaking world, bottling is the culmination of weeks and even years of planning and is a much celebrated event. For a fruit grower, the bottling event signifies even more. Our minds flash back to seven, even nine years ago; although we’d considered a small U-Pick of raspberries and Saskatoons, the seed of growing a commercial Haskap orchard was planted in our heads by a neighbour: “you should try that new fruit, Haskap”…. and since then, we’ve experienced many, many firsts.

Please watch this video of the Bee & Thistle’s Orchard and Winery’s beginnings, along with the beginning of Collin’s farm, Ravensfield.

Forward to present day—we have bottled the first batch of wine that was made from the fruit grown on our own farm, Loch Aline 2019, an aromatic and crisp beautifully hued German Wine Rhubarb and a small amount of Haskap blend. It was a very exciting moment for us.

Although Bee & Thistle Winery’s first bottling seems a little anti-climactic, primarily because Rhubarb is being bottled before Haskap, the process didn’t lose any excitement at all. After all the months and years of preparation, the work of bottling is a welcome final step, and feels like a reward! Although only two of the four team members were able to be there to actually bottle, the support and background work of the team made it all possible. And once the world returns to ‘normal’, we look forward to sharing the joy of bottling our wine, and raising a celebratory glass of wine together.

Please enjoy our video.