#2520 Cariboo Highway
Cache Creek, BC
A hostess’ gift of a bottle of fruit wine to an Armstrong family Christmas party in 1998 led to the opening of the only winery in British Columbia’s interior ranchland. Five years earlier, JoAnn Armstrong and husband, Gary, a veterinarian, had acquired a small ranch at the edge of Cache Creek.
Entrepreneurial JoAnn was looking for a business to develop there and launched a winery. The Armstrongs successfully mastered the art of fruit wines on their own, Cache Creek being too far from other winemaking centres to attract consulting winemakers.
Primarily, using fruit grown on their ranch, they make at least a dozen different wines, available primarily through the wine shop and the busy bistro. The winery takes its name from the nearby Bonaparte River, named after Napoleon Bonaparte by French fur traders.