Small vineyards manage big growth
QUALITY FIRST
Thornhaven Estates Winery is nestled on the slopes of Little Giant’s Head Mountain in Summerland, B.C. – at the heart of the Okanagan Valley’s thriving wine industry.
The courtyard patio at the winery, fronted by flourishing vineyards, overlooks Summerland’s orchard-laden valley floor, distant rolling mountains and sparkling Okanagan Lake.
The lives of the husbandand-wife team, Jack and Jan Fraser – proprietors of Thornhaven Estates Winery – changed significantly when Jack retired from his Libyabased job in the oil and gas industry.
They bought their first Summerland vineyard in 2000, selling the grapes they produced to local wineries. By 2005, they added Thornhaven to their plans, and have tripled production at the picturesque winery, known, in part, for its southwestern adobe-style architecture.
Mr. Fraser says production in the winery’s first year open for business, 2001, amounted to 12,000 litres of wine a year. By 2006, that number hit 34,000, and the Fraser family is planning production numbers as high as 40,000 litres for 2007.
“We have been pushing production in the last two years,” says Mr. Fraser, who adds that, in the end, quality is more important to them than quantity. The Frasers’ son Jason is the winemaker at Thornhaven. He sold his Booster Juice franchise in Edmonton to come and learn the wine industry, and studied under Christine Leroux, a consultant winemaker. The two have had great success.
Thornhaven has won awards every year of its production, winning Gewurztraminer of the Year for its 2005 and 2006 vintages at the Canadian Wine Awards, a gold medal for its 2005 Pinot Noir, and silver medals for both its 2005 Chardonnay and its 2005 Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay blend – a rare wine, worldwide. These days, the Frasers’ challenge is to keep up with demand.
“We sell out of the Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay blend every year,” says Mr. Fraser. “In fact, we sell out of all of our wines every year.”
Dan Crossley, an owner of Discover Okanagan Tours, says Thornhaven is on the company’s Signature Wine Tour.
“We search to find great little ‘tucked-away’ places where people can try and buy great wines at competitive prices,” says Mr. Crossley. “Sometimes we secretly wish they’d raise their prices, so their wines would last longer,” he muses.
But the Frasers, whose daughter Cortney works in Thornhaven’s wine shop, aren’t big on making their wines more expensive. “We keep our prices reasonable because we believe people should be able to afford to drink wine every night, not just on special occasions,” says Mr. Fraser.
He attributes much of Thornhaven’s success to the fact that it is a family-run operation. “We’re hands-on from the production of the grape to the production of the wine,” he says. “We’re not working for a wage; we’re working for the industry – to make better wines.”
Mr. Fraser says their slogan – dedicated to the passion of winemaking – reflects that desire to just keep getting better. The family is constantly tweaking their production techniques in pursuit of that “best bottle of wine.”
They do everything from picking only the best grapes (often themselves) to testing grapes from different parts of the vineyard to find the ones with exactly the right pH, acid and sugar levels.
Okanagan wineries like Thornhaven are a pivotal part of the tourism industry in the area, according to Catherine Frechette, media relations manager for Tourism Kelowna.
“The wine industry is very significant,” she says, pointing out that Kelowna’s Fall and Spring Okanagan Wine Festivals alone draw 150,000 participants from all over the world.
She also points out that growth of the wine industry has had a very notable impact on the local economy. “On average, 80 per cent of the wines sold through vineyards are sold directly through their on-site wine shops.”
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