Owner of Barr Estate Winery had years of wine-making experience before launching his Sherwood Park operation
Almost anyone can make booze, but making a good fruit wine is a science.
“If you go into this business and you’ve never made wine before, you’re in for a world of hurt,” said Rick Barr, who owns Barr Estate Winery in Sherwood Park with his wife Amy and her parents.
“Making alcohol is easy. But to convert a nice fruit into a nice wine takes time.”
Alberta’s cottage wine industry, established in 2005, requires at least five acres of fruit production and the winery must be located on the same land as the orchard. Mead makers require at least 50 bee colonies to be licensed.
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Fruit wines can only be made by adding sugar to fruit.
“If you fermented raspberries or rhubarb with only their natural sugars, you’d only get about four per cent alcohol,” Barr said in a presentation at the recent Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association conference.
“You need to add sugar to get the alcohol content up to a normal acceptable level for wines. We do 12 per cent.”
Barr Estate Winery produces two wines: The Other Red (raspberry) and The Barb (rhubarb). The couple freezes their fruit, presses it and then ferments the pressed juice, which gives them a more consistent product. They use a cool fermentation technique, which improves the bouquet and fruit characteristics.
“Apples make a good wine, but only half of their weight comes back in juice. So you have to pick a lot of apples,” he said. “One of our best yields for juice is rhubarb. You get 85 per cent juice per pound.”
The couple, who has been making wine for 20 years, took a fermentation course at the university, as well as a sommelier course to learn more about wine. Starting a winery is expensive and not having to buy a farm is a big advantage, said Barr who took over a former dairy operation in 2002. The couple grows raspberries, sour cherries and rhubarb for their wine and began sales in 2010.
A new cottage fruit winery is required to produce 1,500 litres in the first year of operation, and be up to 4,500 litres by year five — although that’s tiny compared to commercial operations, which must produce at least 250,000 litres of wine a year. Regulations covering cottage wineries require 75 per cent of the fruit to be grown on the vintner’s property, while the other 25 per cent must be grown in Alberta.
“You have to vinify 100 per cent of the wine on your own property,” said Barr. “Vinify just means converting the sugar to alcohol.”
A Class E cottage winery licence is required to make wine, while a Class D licence is needed if vintners want to sell wine off their premises. Barr Estate also has a liquor agent licence, which allows them to sell their wine to restaurants. Barr recommended allotting at least six months for the paperwork. Business plans are necessary for anyone wanting to become a cottage winery and incorporation is mandatory.
“AGLC (Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission) will not even talk to you unless you are incorporated,” said Barr.
But the key is marketing. The Barrs sell their wine at farmers’ markets and at their farm gate and use social media to generate sales.
