The Canadian taste for wine has developed so far that a New Brunswick vintner wants permission to offer samples in local farmers' markets.

Serge Maury and wife Denise Boucher from La Ferme Maury
near Bouctouche, already sell elderberry, blueberry, strawberry -- and even grape -- wines on the farm. But it's harder at farmer's markets because provincial rules don't allow samples there.

At the farm, customers get a glass before they buy. "I've noticed that people, when they come and they taste, usually 90 per cent or 99 per cent of the time, they will buy," Boucher said.

The talks with the province are moving slowly, said George Wybouw, a wine connoisseur and the founder of Moncton's wine festival.

But he's hoping for a resolution this year, because having tastings is "the only way really to convince people."

The Maury farm has been described as the most northerly vineyard in Canada. But according to the Wines of Canada (new Brunswick section) website, it's located in a sheltered microclimate.