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

Black Hills Estate Winery will be running a limited number of exclusive wine tours and tastings during the Summer and Fall of 2009. This will be your opportunity to get up close and intimate with the winemaking process and the beautiful terroir of our vineyard. The wine shop is now closed for the 2009 season but will re open in May 2010. For further information please contact info@blackhillswinery.com

Winery Events

Bearfoot in the Vineyard

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Whistler's world-renowned Bearfoot Bistro to present our "Bearfoot in the Vineyard" Harvest Dinner. The Winemakers Dinner will feature noted Chef Melissa Craig. Melissa has won numerous accolades during her brilliant career, including being the national champion of the cross-Canada Gold Medal Plates culinary competition in 2008.

Melissa will be presenting creations inspired by the bountiful Fall Harvest that will be taking place in vineyards and orchards throughout the South Okanagan. This harvest dinner will be prepared and served right in the middle of the beautiful Black Hills Vineyard in Oliver, B.C. Accompanying each course will be wines carefully selected from Black Hills Estate Winery. Winemaker Graham Pierce will provide commentary on each of the wines, which will included the famed Nota Bene, Alibi, Carmenere and Chardonnay. Together with Melissa, Graham will provide interesting insight into the food and wine pairing characteristics. This should be an enjoyable dinner like none other.

The "Bearfoot in the Vineyard" Harvest Dinner at Black Hills Estate Winery will be taking place Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009. 6:30 to 10:00 pm. The location is at Black Hills Estate Winery, 30880 Black Sage Road, Oliver, B.C.

Tickets are $199.00 each and include all the food and wine with each course. Tickets are available on Ticketweb at:

Register online here

 

Working Vineyard & Terroir Tasting Experience
Oct 3, 2009

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 our various grapes right off the vine. Then you can compare them to the taste of 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 our precious grapes from select rows of vines. A total hands-on experience!

After all of that hard work, we will visit our winery for a winery tour and a sneak preview Barrel tasting. This will be followed by a light Alfresco Vineyard Picnic, paired with two glasses of Black Hills wine, including our Alibi and Nota Bene.

Ticket price includes bragging rights, vineyard picnic and wine.

The Experience runs at two different times:
• 8:30 am to 12:30 pm
• 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Price: $75.00 per person

Register online here

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.