Kismet Estate Winery | Oliver
Since 1992, Sukhi and Balwinder Dhaliwal have grown grapes for award-winning wines—but that was before they ever started their own label. Producing for VQA wineries like Blasted Church, CedarCreek, Mission Hill and Black Hills (among others) made the brothers from Punjab realize they wanted something of their own, and in 1996, they purchased 10 acres of land in Oliver, now part of the Kismet Estate Winery. Building upon that family legacy, 29-year-old Manpreet Dhaliwal has become the estate’s head winemaker, making her the first (and youngest) South Asian female winemaker in B.C. The label’s wines, including the 2024 Phulkari Rosé, the 2021 Moksha and the 2022 Mantra, have gone on to win 26 awards (and counting). These credits and more earned her a spot on the BCBusiness 30 Under 30 list earlier this year.
Elephant Island Winery | Naramata
At Elephant Island Winery on Naramata’s Aikins Loop, many of the wines are made without grapes (though they have an equal amount of grape-based wines in their repertoire, too), drawing from three diverse properties on the Naramata Bench that grow cherries, peaches, crabapples and vinifera grapes. The winery is owned by Miranda and Del Halladay, who opened it in collaboration with Miranda’s grandmother back in 1999. (The couple say that the idea of making wine on land that was originally purchased to grow fruit is a bit of a “white elephant,” hence the name.)
Whispering Horse Winery | Yarrow
Once a horse ranch and indoor riding arena, this 21-acre property formerly owned by John Giesbrecht near Chilliwack, B.C., is now the home to 15,000 vines. John’s son Barry Giesbrecht runs the boutique winery here, along with his wife Shirley, daughter Melissa and son-in-law Laurent Fadanni. Small-batch, low-intervention wines are the specialty here—seen most notably in their “wild” line, such as the Epicure Wild, Adorn Wild and the flagship L’Acadie Wild.
