The Winery
We were once known for our quaint Quonset Hut on our Black Sage Road vineyard. This quaint but technologically limiting facility was a landmark for years on the Black Sage Road wine trail. It was renowned both for its humble character as well as the “Sorry, Sold Out” sign that seemed to be always mounted outside.
This all changed in 2007 when our operations were moved into a new winery only 1000 metres away designed by renowned architect, Nick Bevanda. This new winery proudly won a 2008 Lieutenant Governor's Award for architectural excellence. We are the only winery in Western Canada to have ever received this award.
The inspiration for our design was the vision of a Crushpad right in the heart of our vineyard and in the closet possible proximity to our grapes. Having our winery immersed in our vineyard enables instantaneous processing of the grapes within minutes of picking at harvest time. This in turn allows for an exceptionally high level of freshness of the grapes at crush time, giving a truer expression of our terroir.
Our grapes are hand-picked and brought from our vineyard to our winery where they are sorted, destemmed, slowly fermented, then pressed into oak barrels and cellared to produce our high quality hand-crafted wines. Our winery facility has been a godsend to the winemaking craft, as it has enabled an exact handling of the wines in temperature-controlled conditions. We are very excited with how this new winery has further enabled the continued progression and evolution of our sought-after wines. This in turn enables us to remain a small production, hand crafted winery with a very high quality winemaking orientation.
Winemaker
Our Winemaking Team's endless dedication to winemaking and their fastidious attention to flavour profiles results in Black Hills' highly regarded wines. They have the greatest respect for the terroir of our vineyard at Black Hills and realize how the wines must continue to be an accurate expression of them.
Graham Pierce, Winemaker
Graham Pierce is the Head Winemaker for Black Hills Estate Winery. In this capacity he oversees every facet of our winery operations and is a passionate hands-on operator. He crafts ours wines using the same painstaking, exact vinification techniques that have been employed since our first wine vintage in 1999. This includes practices such as the “uber-gentle” handling of the grapes at crush time; or selecting appellation-specific oak barrels from select coopers; or the continuous, obsessive monitoring of each barrel of wine's progression in the cellar; or any of a hundred different quality practices that have helped create and sustain the legacy of the wine from Black Hills Estate Winery.
Graham has nearly 20 years of experience in the B.C. Wine & Food Industries in a wide array of facets, including winemaking, vineyard operations and retail and winery restaurant operations. He is also an accomplished cook and spends much of his free time pursuing great wine and food pairing combinations. In the vineyard, he works side-by-side with our Winegrower/Vineyard Manager to ensure that we are growing the highest quality fruit from our vineyard. Using the resources of our new, cutting-edge winery he maintains an intense quality focus on our small, 6300 case production. Graham is passionate about continuing the ongoing progression of the high quality of our wines with each new vintage. He stands proudly behind each bottle of wine produced by Black Hills Estate Winery.
Winery Tours & Tastings
The wineshop is now open daily May 1st to October 9th for wine sales. For Tastings, book and "Experience" by following our tasting link. For further information please contact info@blackhillswinery.com
Winery Events
FALL WINE FESTIVAL EVENTS!
To commemorate the 10th anniversary vintage of our beloved Nota Bene, the folks at Black Hills Estate Winery have put together a special celebration. We have three different events that will be honouring this occasion. All of them will be taking place right at the winery on Saturday Oct. 2, 2010 during the Fall Wine Festival.
Working Vineyard and Terroir Experience Tasting SOLD OUT
Date: Saturday, October 2nd
Time: Morning Experience 8:30 am to 12:30 pm
Cost: $75.00 include bragging rights, vineyard picnic and wine. Tax not included Roll up your sleeves and have some fun! Start with a short lecture called "Vineyard 101" followed by a walking and a sensory tasting tour of our vineyard. In a unique experience called "Wine & Grape Pairing" you will get to taste various grapes right off the vine then compare it to the finished wine of that varietal from a previous vintage. If conditions permit, our Vineyard Manager will then carefully guide you as you help pick bunches of precious grapes from select rows of vines. A total hands on experience! After all that hard work, we will visit our winery for a winery tour and a sneak preview Barrel Tasting. A light Alfresco Vineyard Picnic paired with 2 glasses of Black Hills wine is included in this experience. Ticket price include bragging rights, vineyard picnic and wine.
Tickets can be purchased at the wine shop or by calling us at the winery 250-498-0666
10-year Vertical Tasting of Nota Bene
Date: Ocotober 2, 2010
Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Cost: $150.00 per person+ tx
For the first time ever, we are conducting a rare, guided tasting of each single vintage of Nota Bene from 1999 to 2008. As well, the lucky participants will get a sneak preview barrel sample of the 2009 Nota Bene. This special wine experience will be conducted by Black Hills President Glenn Fawcett and Winemaker Graham Pierce. It will be staged in the beautiful new vineyard lounge at the Black Hills Estate Winery. Prior to the tasting, you will enjoy a walking tour of the vineyard to help you gain appreciation for where the grapes of our single-vineyard wine came from. Then you will get a “behind the scenes” visit to the winery and experience all the excitement of the winemaking team right in the middle of Fall Crush.
Tickets can be purchased at the wine shop or by calling us at the winery 250-498-0666
Double Magnum Private VIP Reception & Pool party
Date: October 2, 2010
Time: 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Cost: $119.00 per person
Join us for a unique wine tasting celebration and poolside BBQ in the owners private Vineyard Residence. To mark the occasion we are digging deep into our Wine Library and pulling out some rare vintage bottles of Nota Bene in double magnum format. For the first time ever, we will be serving our wine from these large format bottles, and will be showcasing the 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2007 vintages. While doing this, you will enjoy grazing on regional BBQ cuisine and grooving to the lively tunes being played by DJ Glennbo. Then rub shoulders with the Black Hills Winemaking and Vineyard team as they take a breather from the Fall Crush and join us for some fun at the party. If the weather is good, bring your bathing suit and enjoy a dip in our heated pool while taking in the festivities.
Tickets can be purchased at the wine shop or by calling us at the winery 250-498-0666
The first annual Vinos Wine Film Festival,
hosted by Black Hills Estate Winery
The Vinos Wine Film Festival was a smashing success. It took place on Thursday June 10, 2010 at the Watermark Beach Resort in Osoyoos, B.C. Over 300 persons were in attendance at this first annual event, and it turned into a very high-energy, entertaining affair. We ended up screening 29 different submissions that night, and lots of good laughs were had by all. It was really hard to believe that this was the first time this event had ever been held.
If you would like to see all 29 finalists that were shown at the Vinos, please click here: http://thevinos.paulcottonfilms.com/main.html
We recruited a panel of local personalities to be judges including:
- Cassandra Anderton, from Breakfast TV and The Shore radio.
- Lindsay Anders, from the BCWI
- Stu Wells, Mayor of Osoyoos
- Marianne McHale, from Sun FM
- Derek Noske, from Destination Osoyoos
- Don Brogan, from Walnut Beach Resort
- Judith Lane, from Watermark Beach Resort
It was very tough for the judges to do this because there were many great quality submissions in the contest. Plus so many of these were an art form, and it is not always easy to grade any kind of art form. At any rate, the judges were instructed to pick the submissions that were most original and produced some good laughs. After the screening of the 29 submissions was over, the Judges compiled their rankings and the following were their winners:
- First Place: "A Little More Local" by Barbara Kozicki, Fiona Mongillo, and Charles Hefferman
- Second Place: "Half Corked" by Ashley Forshaw & Tibor Farkas.
- Third Place was "With BC Wine We Are Kings" by Adrian Talens & Mark Armstrong.
There was also an audience favorite award that was awarded based on the loudest applause, and it went to:
- "A Little More Local" by Barbara Kozicki, Fiona Mongillo, and Charles Hefferman
Black Hills Estate Winery would like to thank-you all for taking the time and effort to make your artistic submissions. We were all simply blown away by the incredible array of talent and creativity that came forth. BC wine is apparently a subject matter that inspires alot of people to come up some with some great film ideas. We hope that we may see your imagination and talent at work again on June 10, 2011 at the Second Annual Vinos Wine Film Festival. Until then, have a happy and safe summer enjoying lots of great B.C. wine!
Cheers,
Glenn Fawcett
Co-founder, Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival
President, Black Hills Estate Winery.
The 2nd Annual Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival
The Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival took place from June 10 to 13, 2010 in and around the South Okanagan. By all accounts the 2nd annual festival was a spectacular success. It was an exceptional collaboration of effort and time from 17 different wineries, 4 different hotels, 8 different Chefs or Restaurants, 3 different live musical performance (Steven Page, Bruce Greenwood, Double Magnum), 2 different tourism agencies (Destination Osoyoos & TOTA), 10 different celebrities, 29 different film producers for the Vinos, 20 different attending members of the media and nearly 1100 enthusiastic fans for BC wine and food. And all this being done while raising money for 3 important Osoyoos charities. Now that is a mouthful!
Osoyoos is often seen as a sleepy little down populated by retirees and families on summer vacation. We feel that this festival has enabled the area to be seen in an entirely new light and has awoken many to the passionate food and wine scene that has emerged here! Black Hills Estate Winery was honoured to be co-founder and sponsor of this festival with Destination Osoyoos, and proud to be part of this vibrant culinary scene.
To view video highlights from the Festival, please click here.
To view photos from the Photo Library, please click here.
Five different events were part of this year’s festival:
- Thursday, June 10, 8:00 pm at the Watermark Resort: The Vinos- the world’s first wine film festival and contest. The event was a lively, laugh-filled evening that will felt like a spoof of an Oscar’s party right in the middle of Osoyoos. Tickets were only $29
- Friday, June 11, 6:00-10:00 pm at Walnut Beach Resort: Osoyoos VIP Reception and Beach Party. Included an exceptional silent auction of hard-to-find B.C. wines. Featured a Limbo Dance contest and a special musical performance by Bruce Greenwood during the Beach Party. Tickets were only $99.
- Saturday, June 12, 12 noon to 3 pm at Black Hills Estate Winery: Nota Bene Release Party. It featured an afternoon lunch visiting numerous food and wine pairing stations located throughout our beautiful vineyard and winery setting. Featured the cuisine of Celebrity Chef Ned Bell and the impassioned music of “Double Magnum”. Tickets were only $149.
- Saturday June 12, 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm at Watermark Beach Resort. “Judgement in Osoyoos: the International Wine Showdown”. This event was inspired by the famous 1976 “Judgement in Paris” blind wine tasting that was featured in the feature film “Bottle Shock”. A panel of experts were assembled to see what happens during a blind tasting when the top B.C. wines went head-to-head with the best wines from around the world. Was hosted by wine personalities Jay Drysdale and Mohamed Awad. Tickets were only $40.00, include tastings of all wines.
- Saturday, June 12, 7 pm to 11 pm at Spirit Ridge Resort: Celebrity Wine Auction with proceeds benefiting children’s charities. Participants tasted an array of South Okanagan wines with appetizers from local restaurants, and got to bid on rare wine from great Canadian wineries in silent and live auctions. The evening featured a live performance by Stephen Page, formerly of the Bare Naked Ladies. Tickets were only $249.
The three charities that were the beneficiaries of this exceptional festival were:
- Desert Society
- Desert Sun Resource Center
- Osoyoos Museum Society
For further information
Passion / About Us
Black Hills Estate Winery is owned by Vinequest Wine Partners Limited Partnership. The Board of this Limited Partnership is comprised of five individuals who share this passion: Glenn Fawcett, Jason Priestley, Gary Nissen, John Houghton and Dale Burstall. In conjunction with our Vineyard & Winery operational team, we collectively share the passion for producing the highest quality wines possible from our terroir. That passion extends to every aspect in the creation of the wine, from vineyard to bottle. We are always striving to fine-tune our viticultural and enological practices to share with you the best and most interesting wines our terroir can express.
