Our winemaker, Gary Strachan is a pioneer of the modern BC wine industry.
He began his wine-making research in 1977, leading a research group at Agriculture Canada, Summerland, BC.
Throughout the 1980's, Gary and his technicians evaluated hundreds of varieties for their ability to produce commercial quality wine when grown in the climates of BC. In addition to grapes drawn from the Summerland breeding programme, wines were produced from grapes grown in Duncan, Langley, Oliver, and Kelowna.
Test plots included grapes from Germany, France, Austria, England, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. When the BC wine industry redeveloped in the late 1980's Strachan’s evaluations had already screened over 200 varieties for performance in the various terroirs of British Columbia. This assisted the BC wine industry to transition from unpopular French hybrid grapes to the classic European varieties we now recognise.