Haines: The New Wine Country.

• Author: PILKINGTON, STEVE
• Position: Great Land Wines, Alaska

France has its famous Champagne country. California has its brisk Sonoma and Napa vineyards. Now Alaska has the latest...the wild northern wines of Haines.

Great Land Wines Ltd., an Alaska winery, has been creative in its use of local products to make wines from wild berries, flowers, birch sap and many other flavorful sundry things. The wine list includes stars like Chilkat Cherry Wine, Strawborealis and Service Berry.

But only the test of time will tell if Alaska wine is here to stay.

"It has to pass my taste test before it goes out the door," says vintner David Menaker, 57, a co-owner and operator of Great Land Wines. "For the most part, it's turned out reasonably well."

The wines are reaching out all over the state. In Haines, the wines are available at The Alaskan Spirit Shop, Bamboo Room and Pioneer Bar, the Hotel Halsingland, Fort Seward Lodge or straight from the winery. It's available in Skagway at the Alaska Liquor Store and in Juneau at the Breakwater Inn.

The business had a unique start.

"I've worked construction most of my life," Menaker said. "Either in logging camps, or mines or on pipelines." When he decided to stay a little closer to home-Haines-he had to look for something at which his family and a few friends could profitably spend their time.

"The opportunities in Haines are somewhat limited," he said. "You've got to have food; we've got stores for that. You've got to have clothes; we've got stores for clothes. You've got to have some kind of lodging. All these slots were taken."

Then, as he and his friends sat around discussing this, they happened upon a more solid idea.

"What else sells in Alaska that hasn't been tried in Haines?" Menaker asked. "Alcohol. Wine."

Great Land Wines was born. "We found some stuff to practice on," he says, but the glue to the idea is the past. "The Gold Rush and the homestead era, that's what more or less the theme is."

After determining the company name and theme, what was left was the long, arduous process of getting all the licensing, legal...