Fruit Wine

Fruit wine skips the grape. Instead it starts with what else grows well in Canada: peaches, strawberries, cranberries, apples and haskap berries. Ferment any of those and the wine tastes like its fruit, brighter and more direct than a grape wine usually gets.

Styles range from crisp and nearly dry to rich, barrel-aged and sweet, depending on the fruit and how much sugar the winemaker leaves behind. Niagara orchards and Okanagan berry farms supply some of what is on this page.

Every bottle ships direct from the winery. No liquor board involved.
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What makes fruit wine different from grape wine

Grape wine has one raw material and centuries of rules about how to use it. Fruit wine has whatever grows locally, from an orchard's extra peaches to wild haskap berries nobody else bottles. Its honey-based cousin, mead, works the same way, just swapping fruit for honey. A peach wine can finish crisp and nearly dry, while a cranberry wine leans tart with a natural sweetness underneath. The fruit decides the shape of the wine. Not the rulebook.

Fruit wine in Canada

Ontario's Niagara wine region supplies some of the tree fruit and berries behind these wines, and a few Okanagan Valley wine producers work their own organic haskap into the mix. Niagara and the Okanagan are Canada's two biggest wine regions overall, represented respectively by Wine Growers Ontario and Wine Growers British Columbia. Some of it arrives sparkling. The haskap can be fortified and aged in oak for a couple of years, coming out rich enough to pass as a dessert wine. What's on the shelf shifts with the harvest, so this season's picks might look different from last month's.

Is Canadian fruit wine sweet?

Not always. Apple wine here runs semi-sweet with a light sparkle, while other styles swing drier or richer. Read the tasting notes before you buy, since the range is wider than grape wine's.

What does haskap wine taste like?

Haskap tastes different from the rest of the page: dark currant, bramble and a faintly spiced finish, rather than bright berry or orchard fruit. It's a Canadian honeysuckle berry, and its wine usually drinks heavier than a typical table wine.

What food goes with fruit wine?

Drier styles work well with grilled chicken, pork or seafood. Sweeter ones, like a ripe strawberry or apple wine, sit nicely next to aged cheddar or a simple fruit dessert. Serve it chilled either way. Fruit wine loses its brightness at room temperature.