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Fleurie Vineyard -- Marcel and Bente Fleurie
Marcel and Bente Fleurie started their vineyard because of their passion for wine and gardening. At their first house in Victoria, they planted three chardonnay vines in the front of the house. After three years of caring and nurturing and a whole lot of reading about viticulture, learning through contacts at the Vancouver Island Grape Growers Association and a course through the University of Guelph, they decided to take the plunge and start their own vineyard.When they purchased their North Cowichan property, there was nothing on it but black berry brambles, fir trees and rocks. There were a lot of rocks. After a year of preparing the site, which included falling trees, deep ripping, grading the site, installing drainage tiles, liming, rock picking and setting up the trellis system, they planted their first vines.
Marcel and Bente decided to use the Scott Henry trellis system. Its benefits include hastened ripening, better berry exposure and a larger crop load. They chose nine different varieties to plant as they wanted to experiment with the potential of the site.
Fluerie Vineyard is still young and the vines have some aging to do before they are producing their best fruit, but Marcel and Bente are extremely excited and encouraged by the results they have seen so far.
We’re fortunate to be associated with Fluerie Vineyard!