1881 Highway 99 N.
Lillooet, BC
Recent immigrants from the Netherlands, Rolf de Bruin and his wife, Heleen Pannekoek, arrived in British Columbia to develop a winery. Finding Okanagan land prices too high, they have now planted the first commercial vineyard on leased property near Lillooet in the Fraser Valley.
They were encouraged by the several years of grape growing trials conducted by a group that included former mayor Christ’l Roshard and her husband, Doug Robson. The winery takes its name from an incomplete Hudson’s Bay Company fort built on the vineyard site in 1859.
The winery opened in October 2009, with about 400 cases of purchased Okanagan wine and is relying on purchased grapes, at least until the Lillooet vineyard is in production. Major varieties in the vineyard are pinot noir and riesling, with smaller plantings of pinot gris, chardonnay, merlot and cabernet franc.