Spotlight: Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery
In rural northern Abbotsford, what was once an economically vital road connecting to the river and Lehman’s Wharf is now part of the Fraser Valley’s historic wine country. It’s here amidst an ocean of farmland you’ll find a precious and stunning jewel - Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery.
Old World charm radiates from every facet of this place. The quaint tasting room is inside a chapel, with just enough space for one intimate tasting experience at a time. In order to accommodate more guests and provide an amazing experience with wine and food, they have transformed their barrel room (a converted barn) into the most incredible venue you never knew existed in the Lower Mainland. Here they can offer wines by the glass or by the bottle, along with charcuterie plates.
It’s worth describing the barrel room in more detail, because it’s absolutely stunning. Rough hewn beams, black iron, and solid wood tables establish the rustic, rural ambience. Finer details ceaselessly draw your eye - crystal chandeliers and modern lighting, leather upholstery, rugs and furs, and golden vine embellishments that transport you to Alsace.
Co-owner Allison Zimmerman is in her element greeting and hosting and sharing the stories of her and her husband’s business, and the wines they produce. Each one is uniquely labeled with art from the Abbotsford historical archives, and given a name that connects that wine to some aspect of Abbotsford’s heritage. For example, the Estate Petit Milo is named Charlotte, after the wife of horticulturist Fenwick Fatkin, in whose honour he invited local Abbotsford growers to showcase their daffodils. The flowers also feature on the label.
Allison is deeply passionate about Seaside Pearl’s wines, eager to explain what makes them special. “We are in the Pacific Northwest, so we produce cool climate wines. That means they are wines for food, and when you taste our wines, you are tasting terroir.” Their production is very limited - at most 2000 cases in total. These small batch wines have little intervention and reflect their environment. It also means they can only sell direct-to-consumer, as they don’t have the volume to supply restaurants or wine shops.
The challenges of running a small winery are never-ending, as Allison shares. “We are glorified farmers. Sometimes you lose sleep, crying and hoping you will have a harvest.” Despite having some disease resistance, hybrid varietals like the Petit Milo grown on their property can still be susceptible to mold during very wet seasons, given the grapes’ tightly packed clusters. Their Cabernet Foch (a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and the hybrid Marechal Foch) grows on just a quarter-acre plot, making a few barrels of a single varietal wine. Such was the case in 2020, whereas in other years like 2022, juice is bled off to make a saignée rosé.
Husband, co-owner, and winemaker David Zimmerman is comparatively soft-spoken and equally endearing. You can tell that he really cares about his wines, constantly thinking about how to make them perfect, not overlooking any details. It’s obvious he cares just as much about the response from his customers - either that, or he’s just a really good listener. “Can you really taste the fruit on that?” “How’s the oak, is it too much?” “You get violets?”
With the help of winemaking consultant Mark Simpson (Mythology Vineyards), David successively creates unique, small lot wines from their Lower Mainland estate, as well as grapes sourced from the Okanagan and Similkameen. I mean unique in the truest sense - at this scale, no wines or vintages can possibly be the same. When you drink Seaside Pearl wines, you are savouring a moment in time because when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Seaside Pearl wines tasted Nov 2024
‘Magnolias’ Sparkling Rosé - checks all the boxes: voluptuous, crisp, refreshing, aromatic with ripe red fruits.
‘Daffodils’ Sparkling White - light, bright, vivacious, aromatic with florals and orchard fruits.
‘Magnolias’ Cabernet Foch Rosé 2022 - a dry, still rosé with floral, fruity, and savoury complexity.
‘Matsqui Prairie’ Gewürztraminer 2023 - tropical fruit, perfume, fully dry and surprisingly light on its feet.
‘Charlotte’ Petit Milo 2023 - clean and sharp acidity, dry, with mirabelle plums, crunchy pear,, and wet rock.
‘Interurban’ Cabernet Foch 2020 - complex nose of red currant, cherries, red plum, leather, herbs, spice, potpourri, earth - I could go on! Beautiful.
‘Royal Engineers’ Petit Verdot 2020 - more dried fruit, dense yet soft, iodine, and silky, dusty tannins.
The gracious hospitality, fabulous venue, and above all great wines, are three reasons why a visit to one-of-a-kind Seaside Pearl Farmgate Winery should be bumped way up on your list. A rich and memorable wine country experience awaits you in Abbotsford - the Okanagan doesn’t have anything like this!
This Blog Post was written by our contributor: Matt Tinney with MT Wine Consulting (@mtwineconsulting).