Berry picking and wine tasting at Reveresque

Owner Andy Christensen took a break from berry sorting to give us a taste of Reveresque's haskap and cherry wines.

One of the great things about living in Morinville is that while you are just 30 minutes from a major city, you are also surrounded by farms. And because those farms are also so close to a major population centre, many double as destinations—offering farm gate sales, u-pick produce, markets, or hands-on experiences to attract visitors.

Last week, my daughters and I swung by Reveresque—a fruit winery and orchard less than 10 minutes from town (by Bon Accord)—and being there took me right back to the early days of the BC wine scene in the Similkameen Valley. A bit removed from the first big Okanagan wine regions, the Similkameen had more small bootstrapping entrepreneurs figuring out the intricacies of wine-making, the wine industry, and local tourism on their own.

Reveresque gave me that same feeling. Still in its early days, it is already producing some fantastic wine and offering tastings onsite. Their haskap wine is on the sweet side, smooth and full-bodied, perfect for summer sangria. If you didn’t know better, you could assume this was a sweet red grape wine, the colour and flavour is so similar.

We also tried the sour cherry wine which was light and crisp, perfect for sipping chilled in the summer sun.

Owner Andy Christensen, who gave us our wine tasting while taking a break from sorting berries, says he’s working on the licensing that would allow people to sip a glass or two beside the berry rows. I, for one, cannot wait.

We left with 8 pounds of haskap berries and 6 bottles of haskap and sour cherry wines.

For now, it's a shady retreat after berry picking, but soon it could be your go-to spot for summer wine sipping beside the berry rows.

Could we have a fledgling new industry?

Is something budding out there, one orchard at a time? There are two other haskap orchards near Morinville (Bokey Blooms and Rosy Farms), and a growing number of cottage wineries scattered across the province. There's potential.

I, for one, hope this might be the start of something bigger for our area. A local fruit and wine industry alongside the many other locally-grown food and drink options we already have could be a unique draw for our region.

If you’re thinking, ‘meh, non-grape wine is never going anywhere,’ that’s what a lot of people thought about Forbidden Fruit winery between Cawston (where I grew up) and Osoyoos about 20 years ago. But look at them now, and you see a thriving business with an expanded selection of flavours, bringing loyal customers (including me) back year after year.

You never know, so let’s keep an eye on Reveresque and cheer on their wine-and-local tourism ambitions!