Fort Berens Estate Winery, the first commercial winery in Lillooet, celebrated its grand opening Saturday. The vineyard, in East Lillooet, opened the doors to its wine shop with a tasting featuring wines bearing the Fort Berens label.

“Being open gives a different dimension to the entire project,” said Rolf de Bruin, who owns Fort Berens with his wife, Heleen Pannekoek.

Planted just last May, the vines at Fort Berens have a long way to go before they produce grapes. A full crop is not expected until 2014.

De Bruin and Pannekoek had bottles on hand for thirsty and paying customers at the grand opening by selling wine sourced from the Okanagan.

In total, Fort Berens had 378 cases of wine stocked at its grand opening, over 4,500 bottles.

“That's what we have to last through the spring,” said de Bruin.

He added the wine shop is expected to stay open from Tuesdays through Saturdays through this winter selling that supply.

“We look very very much forward to the Olympics,” he said, adding he hoped the event would bring more passing tourists.

In the meantime, thousands of litres of grape juice are fermenting in massive plastic tanks at Fort Berens. The grapes used in the fermentation also come from the Okanagan.

The wine from those tanks is expected to be bottled next April or May and on the shelf soon after.

De Bruin said, “We're slowly getting to having Lillooet wine.”

He said selling the Okanagan-sourced wine and fermenting grapes from the region allowed the winery to open to the public as soon as possible instead of waiting for the locally planted grapes to mature.

“Now we‘re in business.

“We'll finally have some cash that comes in.”

Visitors on Saturday toured the vineyard, currently about 20 acres in area, and browsed in the wine shop.

“I think every tour was booked with 25 people or more,” said de Bruin. They held three tours in total.

Inside the wine shop, visitors could try any of Fort Berens' four wines: a Riesling, a sweet pinot blanc, a pinot noir rose, and a red wine blend made up mainly of merlot.

Apple and grape juice were available for non-drinkers. So were crackers, deli meats, and cheese, a gift from Buy-Low Foods.

De Bruin guessed that about 200 people passed through the winery Saturday. Sales seemed brisk as well.

He said the opening gave locals a chance to “just come around to see what's going on.” He noted many residents he spoke to before Fort Berens officially opened were curious about the vineyard.

De Bruin and Pannekoek immigrated from the Netherlands last July with daughter Josine, two, and son Thomas, almost one. The couple had come to Canada with plans to open a winery. They started in the Okanagan, but found land prices there too high.

Wine experts in that region pointed them to Lillooet. There, the couple got in touch with Christ'l Roshard, then mayor of Lillooet. Roshard also hosts a project to test wine grape growing conditions by planting vines on her property.

“Christ'l has been a wonderful help from the beginning,” said de Bruin. Roshard was behind the counter on opening day.

Within months, de Bruin and Pannekoek had accepted an offer to lease land from Kathy Grossler. They decided to name their winery Fort Berens, after the unfinished fort built on the vineyard property in 1859 by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Roshard said the opening of Fort Berens Estate Winery fulfilled her dream of seeing a commercial vineyard operating in Lillooet.

“These guys are living it. I just love it.

“All of our work paid off.”