Aug. 18, 2010 - Issue #774: Blues Fest

Get Your Feet Wet

Local winery allows customers to experience winemaking firsthand

En Santé, an organic fruit winery located north of Two Hills (just under two hours' drive from Edmonton), held its first annual Saskatoon Stomp on the Sunday of the August long weekend. The event was organized by Xina and Tonia Chrapko, sisters who took over the neophyte winery founded by their father, Victor. Originally intended as a retirement project, their father's abrupt death two years ago forced the Chrapko sisters to make a decision about whether or not to continue with the winery. Needless to say, they've embraced it wholeheartedly and are now on the forefront of a brand-new Alberta industry. "Dad spent so much time and energy getting this industry off the ground," explains Tonia. "It's kind of like pioneering."

Indeed, the cottage wine industry is very new to the province—the law permitting its existence was only passed in 2005. Victor Chrapko was a key figure in bringing about this new legislation through his active work with MLA Ray Danyluk. Last year saw another law passed which allowed the sale of fruit wine at farmers' markets, a law that's been a huge boon to en Santé. "Being at farmers' markets has really made a difference in terms of educating people that there is a winery in Alberta," explains Xina. En Santé wines can now be found at markets ranging from Lethbridge to Grande Prairie.

The Chrapko sisters held the stomp as a way of saying thanks to their customers. "We're just so appreciative of the support," states Xina. "They have embraced an organic winery in the province and appreciate the uniqueness of what we have to offer. We wanted to engage them and show them where the fruit is grown and where we process it into wine." Also part of the motivation behind the stomp was to provide some entertainment for the kids, other than watch their parents get buzzed.

The choice of fruit was simple; not only do saskatoon berries look like grapes, they are also ripe at this time of year. "And it's the Ukrainian grape!" jokes Tonia. (The Chrapkos are descendants of Ukrainian immigrants.)

The Stomp began with an orchard tour led by Xina, who makes the wine and manages the orchards. En Santé grows a wide variety of crops and they make wines from many of them: apples, saskatoons, raspberries, highbush cranberries and chokecherries, as well as rhubarb, honey (mead) and even alfalfa.

The orchard tour ended with everyone spreading out along a line of Saskatoon bushes, picking cups of ripe berries to add to the stomping bins. From there, we filed into the brand-new winemaking facility, featuring five big fermenting tanks that just arrived in January. I tasted en Santé's wines a couple years ago, when the company was transitioning from small- to larger-scale production. They have improved immensely in such a short period of time: the wines are all very well-balanced, with fresh fruit flavours and great acidity—all the more impressive given that Xina has no formal training as a winemaker. "It was a matter of just needing to do it," she explains modestly.

Most people assume that because the wines are made from fruit, they are sweet, but it's just the opposite. "They're very much table wine," notes Xina. This makes them enjoyable to wine drinkers who favour traditional grape-based wine, though the cheery fruit flavours also appeal to people who don't normally like wine. Xina also informed me that several medieval societies have purchased en Santé's mead. "I didn't know Alberta had so many medieval societies until we started making mead!"
After we had tasted our way through most of en Santé's wines, the group split into two, with one group heading out to the stomping grounds and the other staying in the winery for homemade pie and ice cream.

I have to say, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of the stomp, but I think the setup was pretty good: the stomper first washed their feet with soap in a tub of water, then stepped into a rinse tub, and from there jumped right into a large plastic bin filled with berries. After squishing them up for a couple minutes—or however long they could stand the weird sensation—the stomper stepped into another tub to wash off the purple juice and saskatoon skins.

As you might expect, the stomping was enjoyed most by the younger crowd—though many adults participated in the stomp, it was the kids who were absolutely delighted. Several of them jumped out of the stomping bin and washed up, only to run back around for another turn.

The juice from these stomped berries will be used to make wine, but it will be a separate batch from their regular saskatoon wine and it won't be released into liquor stores or farmer's markets—germaphobes need not worry about drinking wine that touched a bunch of bare feet. The stomped wine will be available for purchase from the winery only.

It has been fantastic to witness the rise of an Albertan winery, and I will definitely be attending future saskatoon stomps. And although many people still do not know about the winery, I have great confidence that very soon "en Santé" will become a household name in local food and wine circles alike. V
  vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus