We received our Winery Licence in July 2007 – the first to be issued to a land-based winery in the Comox Valley, and shortly thereafter we launched into wine production.  To date we have recieved 12 international and national awards for our wines so we feel like we are off to a good start. 

Our wine making facilitiy is outfitted with state of the art equipment which allows us to produce high quality juice and the ability to handcraft that juice into fine wines.  We currently process about 35 tons of grapes and 5 tons of black currants and blackberries. In 2009 we reached an exciting milestone as our own estate-grown grapes came into production -- we are thrilled to include these grapes in our 2009 wines. Our first estate white wines will be released in 2010, and first reds in 2011 (after barrel aging).

Beaufort Winery Crush Pad & Fermentation Tanks

 We often have friends helping us with the crushing & destemming (they work for wine!).

Winemaking philosophy

· Focus on high quality handcrafted wines
· Minimal inputs into the wine
· Use of detailed lab analysis to minimize additions and adjustments
· Wine pressing is accomplished with a horizontal pneumatic press to maximize juice quality and recovery.

Wine fermentation techniques 

    o Targeted yeast and pectic enzyme selection.
    o Floating roof tanks employed for maximum protection of the wine against oxidation and contamination.
    o Controlled and cold fermentation temperature on white wines to enhance varietal character (aromas and flavours).
    o Nutrient management to achieve ideal conditions for the yeast fermentation.
    o Red wine chapeau management – hand stirred 4-6 times daily during skin contact to enhance colour and ensure healthy fermentation.

Wine Aging:

    o White wines are bulk-aged minimum of 5 months and bottle aged an additional month.
    o Red wines are barrel aged until the desired level of oxidation and flavour profiles are achieved. These wines will also be bottle aged for at least one month before release.
    o Our fortified blackberry/black currant wine has been developed into a Solera – this means that our Spring 2010 release will be a wine that contains 3 vintages of fermented black currants and blackberries. This wine is also extensively barrel aged for the desired level of oxidation and flavour development.
    o Use of synthetic corks and a vacuum corking system to ensure long-term stability of the wine once bottled.

The bottom-line with all of our wines is that we focus on small lots of high quality wines and no wine will be released for sale until we are totally satisfied that it meets our high quality standards.

Preparing the Merlot barrels