Following several months of test batches and practicing our routines, we were finally prepared to initiate full-scale fermentation. Exciting times!

Vintage 2020

Our Haskap wine journey was started with 2020’s frozen July harvest. Vintage 2019 was started a month later from stored fruit.

Growing Season Report: 2020 was a bit of a challenging year for Bee & Thistle Orchards, with a delayed spring and late bud break in addition to temperatures being suboptimal. Flower drop following pollination was in early June, with veraison (turning blue) of the berries occurred on June 25. Using that date, we predicted harvest readiness at July 15, assuming adequate rainfall and sunshine. With an excess of rain and suboptimal sun hours, the berries were a little high in malic acid, but average Brix was close to a respectable 15. Colour in the berries was very good, with a deep crimson indigo throughout the fruit. Therefore, harvesting commenced as predicted in mid-July.

Fruit Available Report: We harvested nearly 12,000 pounds of Haskap in 2020. See our post on how we knew when the berries were ready for harvest, as well as a video of our 2020 harvest: the fruit will be fermented in small batches of 1000 L per batch until all is gone!

August 21, 2020

A large quantity of haskap in pails were brought from the freezers and thawed, then crushed into the large primary fermenters. Sugar and water were added, with amendments and adjustments done as well. The berries were macerated for a time with added enzymes, after which they were pressed and returned to the primary fermenters to ensure that fermentation would proceed unimpeded before transferring to the 2,100L tank. The temperature of the juice was adjusted to permit the yeast to multiply and start ferment stress-free.

August 22, 2020

Yeast was pitched; we chose another select yeast for this batch since we intended to ferment in a glycol-chilled controlled temperature tank. Cooler temperatures protect the aroma and fruity flavours with this yeast noted for production of fresh fruity aromatics and true-to-fruit profiles. I also made judicious additions to accent the fruitiness and bring out the natural characteristics of Haskap, optimizing both colour and flavour. Yeast nutrient is a requirement for most non-grape fermentation; needed additions are carefully calculated based on specific in-house lab testing. Many wineries try to argue that wine should not be made in ‘lab’; I personally feel this is a narrow-minded comment meant to discredit our work. To assume that fruit other than grapes (and indeed, many grapes are lacking as well) has sufficient nutrient to support that yeast is also foolhardy. Supplemental yeast nutrient is almost a ubiquitous practice since fruit such as Haskap simply does not have sufficient yeast available nitrogen to support continued fermentation. I for one, will not throw out a batch when a simple lab test can provide me with information I need to confidently proceed—you might as well throw a dart at the wall and hope it lands on a number that will work otherwise.

August 25, 2020

After observing and testing thrice daily, it was determined that our fruit aroma profile would benefit from maintaining the temperature of the must a bit cooler; therefore, the must was pumped into the large glycol controlled 2,100L tank to prevent its overheating and destroying our work to date. The tank has a sampling port and the wine was tested and followed closely until fermentation was completed.

August 30, 2020

Haskap Wine Vintage 2020, 2,000L was progressing very well with temperature controlled fermentation to accent the fruity aromas and flavours inherent in Haskap. It took about 2 more weeks to finish fermenting and then the work of stabilizing, finishing, subtle adjustments and aging began.

September-December, 2020

Haskap Wine Vintage 2020 tested as having completed fermentation in mid-September, as expected. We racked off the lees at this time, added a bit of adjustment products, and decided on the plan of action going forward. Wine samples will be taken weekly until it is determined that the wine is properly developed to its maximum potential. This is expected to take between 2 and 4 months, with anticipated finishing around Christmas or early January. The wine is predictably young, raw, and unaged. However, the aromas are clear and there is no evidence of untoward activity or contamination. Finings will be used when appropriate or if indicated by lab testing and bench trials.

Pre-bottling, December, 2020

Haskap Wine Vintage 2020 was filtered and back sweetened. Final filtering straight into the bottle will be a sterile filtering as per good winemaking practice, which clears both bacteria and yeast, but retains all aromatic and taste elements. No one wants a cloudy bottle of wine and few consumers like sediment in their wine either, although fining is as important as filtering to achieve stability.

Next batches, January and February, 2022

From January 15 to February 15, 2022, 3000 L of Haskap Wine Vintage 2020 will be fermented and processed as planned above. The flavour and profile of this fruit harvest (from frozen fruit) is expected to be as award-winning as our initial batch, which garnered 92 points at the New York International Wine Competition in 2021. The processing is similar, with slightly more whole fruit retained as it was noticed that there was perhaps excessive bitter tannin release from the heavily crushed and pressed first batches in 2020, which had to be fined out. Perhaps we can avoid excessive processing and extra fining by a little more attention to early stages of the fermentation and handling of fruit.

See our blog on fining:

Further adjustments and additions were made. See our video on the bench trial for oak chips.

Instead of flooding the whole tank with oak which is a bit risky, we decided to trial oak in carboys. We will add that at a very precise ratio as determined by the bench trial. And finally, upon target-market analysis, it was determined that most target consumers prefer their red fruit wines to be semi-sweet to sweet, so we are testing with various amounts of back-sweetening sugar syrup as well. Only a very small segment of fruit wine drinkers prefer dry fruit wine, even if they prefer dry grape wine. A smaller quantity of dry Haskap wine is being trialed and will be introduced in fall, 2021 if found to meet our stringent quality standards.

Following some additional fining to smooth out the edge of astringency, and several judicious filtering (rough and polish), we added a small amount colour stabilizers.

Bottled: End December, 2020 and Mid January, 2021

Released Date: End January, 2021

Sold Out first Batch: April, 2021

More Available from Subsequent Batches: October, 2021

June, 2021

Batch 2, 2020: Started June, 2021 1000 L, will be made into fortified dessert wine, MIST, and regular Semi-Sweet and also Dry Table Wine; progressed much the same as Batch 1 (2020) and finished fermentation in a timely manner. Different yeast utilized with slightly different methods to maximize flavours. A small quantity was trialed to fortify early to stop fermentation and put in a carboy to mellow and age a little. If this is successful, a new batch will be started and dedicated to strictly fortified dessert wine and bottled in 375 mL flint Bordeaux bottles with Tcaps and security logo strips

October, 2021

Bottled Haskap DRY 20 cases.

Vintage 2019 (Aged)

Our next Haskap wine ferment was started with 2019’s frozen harvest.

Growing Season Report: 2019 was a bit of a challenging year for Bee & Thistle Orchards, with a delayed spring and late bud break in addition to colder than normal temperatures right up to harvest week. Traveling plans and logistics had our harvesting a little sooner than optimal, therefore, the fruit will be handled with an eye to reducing the less than ripe character. We also had an excess of rain, and the fruit was a bit less concentrated, with an overall Brix of just around 14. Colour in the berries was very good, although we did determine we would need to macerate and ferment on these berries a bit longer to release the tannins and aromas and to maximize colour extraction.

Fruit Available Report: The winery has purchased 3 pallets of fruit from the Bee & Thistle Orchards. One pallet was used for this batch and the other two will be used in late December after the Rhubarb wine tanks are free.

September 25-26, 2020

Pails of Haskap were brought from the freezers, thawed in pails, crushed into the large primary fermenters, sugar and water added, with amendments and adjustments done as well. The berries were macerated for approximately 24 hours with added enzymes. Fermentation was monitored closely thereafter.

September 30, 2020

After fermenting on berries for a longer period to maximize elements desirable to the finished wine, (with thrice-daily punchdowns), the must was pressed and the resulting ferment pumped into a 1,000L tank, with several smaller carboys utilized for topping up and testing purposes in conjunction with the bulk ferment. The ferment was allowed to progress to completion in a glycol-chilled tank set a bit cooler, with daily monitoring, Regular checks were performed and parameters were measured.

Late October, 2020

The must was racked off the lees once again, with parameters re-adjusted as determined by in-house lab tests. The fermentation was completed in about 4 weeks and, as with 2020’s vintage, the tank aging process is initiated and underway.

December, 2020

Assessments continue on Vintage 2019 Haskap, with all pointing toward a favourable outcome and an aromatic somewhat complex wine as compared to Vintage 2020 Haskap. We are attributing this to an initial longer ferment on the fruit, as well as to the specific attention paid to careful earlier racking following fermentation to mitigate negative flavour and aroma, and allow the wine to age with freshness and fruit-forward attributes. Frequently, grape winemakers will age on lees (sur lie²) but in the case of immature fruit, this practice would not be advisable. We also did a few minor adjustments, and we will assess for the possibility of aging on a little oak chips to accent the fruit.

January, 2021

Very successful attributes are noted whilst this wine continues to age beautifully. Oak chips and final filterings and finings with appropriate products are in progress. See Fining link above.

²sur lie: French ‘on the lees’: aging wine on lees; this practice keeps the wine in contact with the dead yeast cells, adding flavours, aromas, depth and complexity. If fruit is immature or has evidence of Botrytis, this practice would not be advised as it would concentrate the negative attributes instead of accenting the positive ones.

Tank Aging to May 2021: Tank aging to develop flavours and give the customer a chance to taste the more aged Haskap wine.

Bottled May 2021: 70 cases

Released for Sale: May 2021

Sold Out: July 2021; more made in a new batch below, available August 2021

NEW BATCH Late January, 2021

CF5 2019 Vintage: 2000 L started with a new yeast and is progressed. This yeast is noted for high aroma producing capacity, and easily captures the essence of Haskap at a lower fermentation temperature. Wine was fermented ‘on fruit’ until Brix 8 or sp.gr. approximately 1.030 to ensure maximum fruit flavour extraction. Again, we chose the yeast derivative enhancer dedicated to more immature fruit. This time we dared to start at a higher alcohol potential Brix, which should give us a finished alcohol of closer to 12-13.5%. This would be the ideal starting point for our new product, Haskap MIST™, requiring less wine and allowing for the addition of more juice! Our MIST™ product has a proprietary secret ingredient list, which definitely includes a goodly amount of real Haskap juice, and provides a real punch of flavour. See Haskap MIST™ for more descriptive.

Mid February, 2021

The fermentation of this lovely batch of wine completed. Finishing tasks were performed (including racking and rough filtering), while we opened our winery for sales! This will probably be the busiest season in the lifetime of our winery.

End February, 2021

Because were very busy with the first month of winery opening and sales, the decision was made to allow this batch to tank age a bit longer, which will allow us opportunity to finalize our plans for it. Since it is pleasing when quite dry, we are going to experiment with several options and will possibly divide this batch to best determine our course of action. And a little tank aging never hurt a wine. Of course, the parameters will be closely monitored and adjustments made as necessary.

Early March, 2021

We’ve added another 1000 L batch of the 2019 berries to the primary tubs, and will blend these two CF5s together once they are both finished, to allow them to age blended in the 2100 L tank. They are being treated in precisely the same way. Then we can opt to use some for Haskap MIST™ as required, and finalize our plans.

Mid March, 2021

We’ve filtered and done preliminary adjustments to the first batch, including addition of some select products to enhance the fruit-forward attributes. This particular batch is testing at relatively high alcohol (13%) and will be blended with the lower alc/vol (12%) second batch. Balance in fruit wine is achieved by balance in alcohol as well as many other things, and this level of alcohol is just a little higher than optimal for a balanced taste test on 7 week old wine; we’ll blend and adjust until we get the level we want. In saying that, the other attributes, including flavour, colour, aromatics, and finish, are very good to excellent. This gives me confidence this is a very nice batch, and will only improve upon further aging and slight adjustments to accent the natural flavours and aromas of Haskap, and to bring out its potential in wine.

Mid April, 2021

Blended CF5i and CF5ii: 12.5% alc/vol

To June 2021: Tank Aging and final adjustments/finings

Bottled: 225 cases, early July 2021

Released to Market: August 2021, delivered a quantity to Alberta as well

NEW BATCH June 2021

CF7 2020 + 2019 Vintage: 1000 L started with a new yeast and has progressed. This yeast is noted for high flavour producing capacity, more mature fruit, and easily captures the essence of Haskap at a lower fermentation temperature. Again, we chose the yeast derivative enhancer dedicated to more mature fruit. This batch should work out well for proposed Haskap Dry and possibly some more MIST and a new product, Haskap Fortified at 19.5% alc/vol with the addition of some neutral grain spirit, sweetening and final adjustments.

July 2021

The fermentation of this lovely batch of wine completed and the aromas and tastes are awesome!

End August, 2021

Aging time—the parameters will be closely monitored and adjustments made as necessary.

The other attributes, including flavour, colour, aromatics, and finish, are excellent. This is a very nice batch, and will only improve upon further aging and slight adjustments to accent the natural flavours and aromas of Haskap, and to bring out its potential in wine. Alc/Vol before back sweetening has a good balance and with appropriate tannins and a little oak, this will be a great new product for Haskap DRY.

Plans to Bottle:

Haskap DRY (with little sugar added 10 g/L so sweetness level 1), Bottled 20 cases October 2021, released November 2021

CHIAD FHION Haskap Regular our Brand Award Winning Wine with our normal sweetening protocol

THE ABBEY Haskap Fortified Dessert Fruit Wine, preliminary testing SLGA approved to 19.5% November 2021

NEW BATCH mid July, 2021

CF8 2021 Vintage: 2200 L started directly from harvest in mid July, with amazingly ripe fruit and a very advanced flavour profile. Again, we chose the yeast derivative enhancer dedicated to more mature fruit and the appropriate yeast as well. This is a large, well-developed batch that should do great things! The summer was extremely hot and a little bit of water restriction due to lack of rain does develop very flavourful fruit with a goodly amount of natural sugar! We did lose a quantity of this harvest due to a premature hail storm on June 7, just as fruit was beginning to set.

mid August, 2021

Fermentation completed.

Aging time will begin soon—the parameters will be closely monitored and adjustments made as necessary.

The other attributes, including flavour, colour, aromatics, and finish, are excellent. This is unique batch, and will only improve upon further aging and slight adjustments to accent the natural flavours and aromas of Haskap, and to bring out its potential in wine.

Sept-December, 2021

Tank Aging at 12C. This is being sampled weekly and continues to develop beautifully with unique flavour profile likely dependent on the hot dry year we had.

Chiad Fhion Haskap Fruit Wine CF8

Haskap MIST batches MT 5 and 6

2 batches of The Abbey Fortified Haskap Dessert Wine HF1 and HF2

600 L distilled for the Fortifieds, both The Abbey and Kinlochaline.

Jan-March, 2022

2200 L of CF9 were fermented and left to age in tank through to June 2022, using some of the remainder of 2020s fruit from frozen storage. This batch will also be multi-purposed as was CF8, into Haskap DRY, regular Chiad Fhion Haskap, Fortified The Abbey and Kinlochaline, as well as Haskap MIST.

Proud recipients of the 2021 New York International Wine Competition’s Canada Winery of the Year Award

Proud recipients of the 2021 New York International Wine Competition’s Silver Award (92 points)

Proud recipients of the All Canadian Wine Championship 2021 Gold Medal and Alberta Beverage Awards 2021 Judges’ Selection