As mentioned previously on this site, Fraseropolis — the sometimes quarrelsome  liaison of Fraser Valley County and Vancouver County — produces two thirds of the agricultural wealth in British Columbia. This output includes wine grapes.

The Wine Institute of B.C. recognizes the Fraser Valley (including Metro Vancouver) as a wine producing region. There’s room for a little caution here, since most of our locally-produced wine isn’t produced from local grapes. Putting aside the industrial-scale use of Californian and Chilean product, the Vancouver-area wineries that want a “VQA” sticker (made in B.C.) truck in most of their grapes from the sunny Okanagan Valley, four or five hours away. The issue on the Pacific Coast, I think, is the relative shortage of hot, sunny days, combined with a fewness of vines. Continue reading →