The Prairies’ Only Winery: A Dream Comes Trueby Habeeb Salloum “You should try our Saskatchewan wine made in the only commercial winery on the Canadian prairies”, Patricia, a Saskatchewan tourist official, was full of enthusiasm as she talked. I looked at her strangely. Wine made commercially on the prairies - it never crossed my mind! Yet, what she said was true. Marie and Marty Bohnet operate a very successful winery in Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park - a green-forested highland in the midst of the southern Saskatchewan prairies.
 Their winery has become the talk of that area and beyond and this made me anxious to visit it. Now after driving 20 km southwest of Maple Creek, on Hwy 271 toward the National Historical Site of Fort Walsh, we turned to enter the Cypress Hills Vineyard & Winery. Set amidst landscaped surroundings with shrubs, footbridges, a pond, trees and waterfalls designed to enhance the home-like structure to an onlooker it oozes newness and affluence.Picture # 2
 Before opening the winery, the Bohnets were ranchers and as a hobby and began to grow grapes and hand-make wine as a pastime. When in 2003 BSE hit the cattle industry they were forced to look for another way to make a living. They chose to make their hobby, which they loved as their business. The few grape vines they planted mainly out of curiosity in their home winemaking days were to set them on the path to a winery - a dream come true.
 When searching for grapes that could stand the cold Saskatchewan climate, the Bohnets found new grape hybrids from Wisconsin and Minnesota that were able to survive temperatures up to 40 degrees below zero. Since 2004, they have planted some 2,000 vines on 4.5 acres of land and they plan on having 10 acres planted with grape vines within the next four years.
 The Bohnets did much experimentation and learned the trade as they tested vine growing and the wines. In a few years they turned their love of wine making into an amazing successful business. Full speed ahead became their motto and business increased on an ongoing basis - exceeding their wildest dreams. Today they are more than twice as busy as when they were ranchers.
Their winery produces eight wines. From among these: Rhubarb Blend (the best seller), Saskatoon Berry, Chinook Red, North Slope, Choke Cherry Wine, and Saskatchewan Sour Cherry. These wines are made 12% from imported grapes, 8% locally grown grapes, and 80% Saskatchewan fruit. All the wines are made from Saskatchewan based products and the bottles feature original Saskatchewan paintings.  Besides some local restaurants, virtually all the Bohnets’ wines are sold over the counter during the summer months and the days their establishment is open in spring and autumn. The winery closes in the winter months and during this period Marie and Marty produce, some 22,000 bottles of wine and label and store them in their cellars for the coming season.
 A highway running through Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park edges their winery and they take full advantage of the summer traffic - a good number of the Park visitors stopping to buy their wine or snacks in the winery’s bistro. Most of their customers are from the surrounding area but a fair number of travellers on the nearby Trans Canada Highway stop to try the only wine produced in this part of the country.
 When I asked Marty if overseas visitors stop at his winery, he replied, “Not much! However, last week a fellow winemaker from Switzerland who owns 10,000 acres of vineyards stopped here and said as he watched customers line up to buy our wines, ‘By the number of people going through your shop, I think your winery is a great success’.“
 After tasting a number of the wines, like the majority of customers, I found that the Rhubarb wine followed by the Saskatchewan Sour Cherry to be my favourite choices. We then sat down in the tiered patio bistro amid the beautiful water gardens to partake of lunch. With the landscaped land around us, and the Cypress Hills as a seductive backdrop, we enjoyed a tasty light meal capped with a heavenly Saskatoon pie - the best that I have ever tasted in any eating- place.
Sated, I sat back and watched the customers enter in ever-increasing numbers and thought of how Marie and Marty, a forward looking couple, had turned a ranching disaster for many into a rip-roaring business of which every entrepreneur can be proud. Marie is quoted as saying. "We're the talk of the town right now. People just can't believe we built a winery here." For More Information, Contact: Cypress Hills Vineyard & Winery. Box 122, Maple Creek, SK S0N 1N0. Tel: (306) 662-4100. E-mail: Cheers@cypresshillswinery.com Website: http://www.cypresshillswinery.com/ | 
