Sunshine, green fields, good company, and WINE TASTING! What a perfect BGC “meeting”!

The Chaberton Winery in Langley, one of the oldest and largest (50 acres!) in the Fraser Valley, is only an hour away! Wine tasting is, of course, the chief attraction, but their highly rated Bacchus Bistro serves authentic French bistro cuisine. On the other hand, you can bring your lunch (as we opted for) to enjoy in their beautiful picnic area. We saw families with little ones, grandparents, and even doggies. “Flights of wine” arrived there too!

Our host, Rae, explained that you must grow 51% of the grapes yourself to be classified as an “Estate Wine”.  Chaberton’s signature wine is “Bacchus”, although unfortunately it wasn’t on our tasting menu. The BC Top 50 Wines (out of 400 BC wineries) included the 2019 Cabernet Franc and the 2023 La Fleur de Chaberton. All of their grapes are hand-picked, and for the three weeks of summer harvesting, they hire almost 200 employees! (Hmmm, makes our gardening seem a bit lightweight!)

The founders, Claude and Inge Violet, left their winery in France and chose this area as the ideal place to grow the cool-weather grapes famous in Northern France and Southern Germany. (Red wines are better for the hot Okanagan.)  The clay soil, perfectly situated on a sunny south-facing slope, is ideal. The aquifers of the Campbell Valley are all they need for irrigation.  The Violets experimented with different grape varieties for 10 years before beginning to sell their wines! Although not classified as organic, they don’t use pesticides. Fungus is the one thing they will treat.  They have been fortunate not to have a problem with deer, bears, or crows, unlike a neighbor who lost half their vines to bear damage.

Chaberton wines come from their vineyard as well as the Fraser, Okanagan, and Similkameen Valleys. The one exception was the 2024 vineyard disaster, when they were allowed to bring in grapes from Washington. It will take 3 to 5 years for the vineyards to recover. Wines can be a blend up to 15 percent without calling it a blend. We learned that “Heritage” wines are the American version of Bordeaux (which is only from the Bordeaux region in France). Chaberton “Mertiage” is 2 1/2 years in barrels and 2 years in bottles. It is full-bodied but not too heavy. Another topic was “Rose” wines. We discovered that the color of Rose wines comes from the skin of the particular grapes used. Their darker Rose has had 48 hours of contact with the skins.  The lighter Rose has none. We learned that Icewine (one word) is not a regulated name, whereas “Ice Wine” is. Chaberton does a late harvest dessert wine instead, because we don’t get the necessary frost like they do out east. This year, they are trying a new sparkling wine of 12.5% alcohol. The addition of CO2 gives it a refreshing taste, although it is not aged.

Our guide showed us the huge stainless steel containers for white wines and the two types of oak barrels for aging red wines. They keep the 300-liter and 400-liter barrels at a chilly 15 degrees.  Barrels can be used 3 times, and they come from France, the USA, and Hungary. Each gives a little distinct flavor to the wine. The bigger barrels have less oak flavor. Cedar barrels ensure that there are no rodents or pests. We were so impressed with their newest, huge machine, which fills the bottles, corks, and labels; it only needs 2 people to run it, and it does 3 cases per minute. They send out over 50 thousand cases of their 20 wines a year! You won’t find their wine at the BC Gov’t Liquor stores, though. They sell to private stores, Save-On Foods, Superstore, bars, and restaurants.

It was a most enjoyable (and delicious!) field trip and certainly worth a repeat visit!

Here is a PDF with lots more photos!

photo collage

Related Links:

Chaberton Estate Winery - Langley, BC
"Our story is rich with French history, but our wines are 100% BC
Fraser Valley’s oldest winery, Wine tours, Spectacular vineyard views, Beautiful tasting room,
On-site bistro serving fresh local cuisine"
Chaberton Estate Winery and Bacchus Bistro, Langley BC

Wines of British Columbia
https://winebc.com/discover-bc-wine-country/fraser-valley/

The Fraser Valley
https://www.thefraservalley.ca/8-local-wineries-around-the-fraser-valley-to-celebrate-spring/