Quick Shots

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Most people don’t know that we have one distillery, two breweries and one winery here in Manitoba. The winery is the one that surprises people the most. Believe it or not, it’s possible to have a bottle of wine made from local fruit.
   
Rigby Orchards Prairie Estate Winery is located in southwestern Manitoba, northwest of Killarney, near the Saskatchewan border. The Rigby family has been involved in agriculture since 1882. In 1987, the 14-acre orchard was planted with raspberry and black currants. Some of its fruit wine is made in a mead style. The honey that is used is sourced locally from the BeeMaid Co-operative.
   
The wines Rigby produces are growing in popularity — so much so that the family had to buy extra fermentation tanks in 2010 to keep up with demand. The tanks will also allow multiple wines to be produced at the same time. Production is very meticulous; no sulfites are added to its organic wines.
   
The three wines that are currently available at most MLCC locations are:
   
• Rigby Orchards – Mead Cassis (honey & blackcurrant)
   
• Rigby Orchards – Dinner Mead Framboise (honey & raspberry)
   
• Rigby Orchards – Dry Aperitif & Dessert Boyne Raspberry
   
The Dry Aperitif & Dessert Boyne Raspberry wine was served as the dessert wine for Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee banquet at the Manitoba Legislature in 2002.
   
When I interviewed owner Grant Rigby, I reached him on his farm tractor while he was moving bales. I inquired about future new products we might see on our store shelves. He mentioned that he has been working on something new that will be released this year at the Winnipeg Wine Festival — appropriate, considering this year’s festival theme is Canadian wine.
   
Dot is the Product Consultant at the River & Osborne Liquor Mart.