Northern Lights Winery
Northern Lights Estate Winery opened its doors in 2015 after 2 years of construction. The most Northern Winery in BC, this purpose-built fruit winery chose its location on the banks of the Nechako River in Prince George to take advantage of the beautiful landscapes and fertile land. The winery is the brainchild of local Entrepreneurs Pat and Doug Bell who built the winery as part of their family’s business legacy in Prince George.
Northern Lights Estate Winery is now farming fruit over 4 parcels of land approximately 55 acres in size. It is harvesting 17 different types of fruits and produces approximately 20 varieties of wine annually. Northern Lights has added several acres of additional planting of Haskaps (also known as Honeyberry), Saskatoons, and Black Currants, and added 20,000 crowns of Rhubarb in 2021. As BC’s largest fruit wine producer providing over 10,000 cases of wine per year to the province. Sales are roughly 40% direct to customers and 60% through private liquor stores and hospitality.
Northern Lights Winery has also led the way with its first 3 wines submitted for Certified Quality Wines standard passing immediately (Seduction Rhubarb/Strawberry, Mirtillo Blueberry, and Bumbleberry (Raspberry/Blueberry/Saskatoon). BC’s most Northern Winery is located on the banks of the Nechako river in Prince George BC and see’s over 30,000 visitors a year.
The Founder
Pat was a member of the BC Government for 12 years including three years as the Minister of Agriculture. He left the government in 2013 and liked the wine business so started looking at wineries in the Okanagan, but Pat ended up in Prince George with a fruit winery. At the time everyone thought he was crazy!
They have won recognition for their work at the 2016 Business Excellence Awards by taking home Business of the year, tourism business of the year, business person of the year and entrepreneur of the year.
The New Wave Wine Society
Pat provided the following information in 2019 when the New Wave Wine Society was being formed.
In 2015, I started to reach out to other fruit wineries around the province and started working on developing a small association. The New Wave Wine Society was formed in 2018 to represent the fruit and mead wine sectors. The association has 18 members, three mead producers and 15 fruit wineries. Geographically the wineries and roughly evenly split with a third each from Lower BC Mainland, Vancouver Island and Interior BC. The industry today is a little over 200,000 litres, 211,000 litres in 2018.
The goal for this new society is to start representing all fruit wineries in BC and to elevate people’s awareness of fruit wine.
There are another dozen or so wineries that produce predominantly grape wine but have fruit wine in there portfolio like Rocky Creek. The 200K litres does not include the fruit wines from the wineries that also produce grape wine and export volumes. The main export market for fruit wine is to Asia and predominantly blueberry wine.
It has allowed people to develop wineries in areas where grape growing is difficult and to provide a value-add for fruit growers. The market reception for fruit wine has been great from direct customers. There has not been as much traction with the hospitality industry and it has been a tougher go there for fruit wine.
The fruit wine industry is maturing and looking to develop higher quality products. We now have an agreement in place with the British Columbia Wine Authority (BCWA) to deliver a VQA type Quality Assurance program. The program will start with the regulation under which BC VQA grape wines are certified, include all the faults that they have to certify to. We have used the identical faults but have simplified the rules by taking out some of the process driven grape wine steps. For example, with fruit wine you have to add sugar if you are going to obtain alcohol levels of 13-14%. The faults and the rules about labelling are identical.
BC liquor store sales of fruit wine are small but the fruit wineries are able to sell all their product direct to customer or through public liquor stores. One of future goals is to have equal access to the BC Government Liquor store system.
Pat Bell Board Chair of the New Wave Wine Society.
Millennial Market
One of the challenges for the mainstream wine industry is how to break into the Millennial Market. Millennials are very open to new ideas and really embrace fruit wines. Being a traditionalist can be negative in this market segment so Pat sees a great opportunity for fruit wines here.
Grocery Store Channel for Fruit Wines
Fruit wines are available for sale in all of the BC Loblaw stores licensed to sell wines and the two Save-on-Food wine stores that were not part of the license transfer from the BC VQA stores in Westbank and Penticton. Loblaws is a very good sales channel for fruit wines.
Northern Lights Estate Wines
Seduction
On the nose, a wave of strawberry and fresh fruit hits in a way that appeases all wine lovers. Home-grown strawberries reach the palate first with a medium body and creamy, buttery mouthfeel. Seduction finishes light and smooth seducing you into another sip.
Pair with: Tandoori-Spiced Chicken, Penne Arrabiata, or Baked Brie & Crostini
Gold Winner from the 2020 ACWC
Northern Lights Bell Family Reserve
This full-bodied and well-aged Red Wine is a blend of our most premium Haskap and Blueberries. It will delight those with a bold and complex palette. The Bell Family Reserve series is a limited edition wine with minimal cases produced annually using carefully selected fruit. We have chosen to carefully age in an American oak which provides smoky, woody, tannic notes throughout the length of the wine. This wine will age well into its 5th year.
Pair with: Perfectly cooked steak, Mushroom ragu, or hard cheeses.
For the complete portfolio of Northern Lights Estate Wines please visit the winery website.
Conclusion
- Fruit wines are where BC grape wines were in the ’90s, in terms of industry maturity.
- The New Wave Wine Society members are very serious about creating higher-quality fruit wines.
- The fruit wineries are working together on new programs and marketing collaboratively.
There is a bright future for BC fruit wines.
Source: Photos and tasting notes provided by North Lights Estate Winery. The original 2019 article was updated in September 2022.