(Wines&Vines) - A five-year adventure of cultivating a new wine-producing region on Canada’s West Coast has borne fruit, and the first wines are hitting store shelves. Fort Berens Estate Winery, based in the Fraser Canyon three hours north of Vancouver, hosted an official launch party Monday for the first wines made from locally grown grapes. Fort Berens owners Ralf de Bruin and Heleen Pannekoek immigrated to Canada in 2008, leaving corporate careers in the Netherlands for a slower pace of life as vintners. They sold their home just outside Amsterdam and, after consulting with John Vielvoye (a former provincial government grape specialist) and viticulturist Richard Cleave, they opted to settle in Lillooet, where trials had been under way since the mid-2000s.