Broken Tine Orchard
Broken Tine Orchard is a farm located in Alberta along the Rocky Mountain foothills. Their main farm crops are canola, wheat, and barley but in 2011 they planted a Haskap orchard. What is haskap? It’s a berry that tastes like a mixture between raspberries and blueberries. I’ve recently been seeing more recipes featuring this superfruit lately, particularly in dessert and now in wine!
Broken Tine Orchard has created their own fruit wine called Haskap Melomel which is a type of mead. Mead is often referred to as a honey wine because it’s an alcoholic beverage often created by fermenting honey with water. The Haskap Melomel has an aroma of both honey and berries. It’s created using locally produced white honey from their orchards and their Haskap berries. The orchard has been working with Dominic Rivard, wine master, to produce this award-winning fruit wine. Fun fact: it had been chosen as the Judges Selection in the most recent Alberta Beverage Awards!
I don’t like strong wines, but I found the Haskap Melomel to be smooth and easily drinkable. In each sip, I could taste the mild honey notes and berry finish. The taste of the alcohol itself is very subtle as well.
The wine is best served slightly chilled after letting it breathe for 5 minutes. Broken Tine Orchard recommends having this as a casual drink on its own, with a salty appetizer, or with meal pairings that include poultry or fish. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I do think that this is a good wine to accompany your meal because it’s a sweet and romantic drink!
Where can you purchase this locally made fruit wine? It’s available at Wine and Beyond liquor stores across Alberta. Broken Tine Orchard also offers frozen Haskap berries, Haskap berry topping, and they’ll be launching a frozen treat later this year!
