4918 Anderson Rd.
Kelowna, BC
An economics graduate from Erasmus University in Amsterdam, Richard Kamphuys immigrated to Canada with his wife, Jitske, in 1992 to pursue a rural lifestyle on an Okanagan apple orchard. In 2005, they tore out the trees, replacing them over several years with 27,000 vines (baco noir, pinot gris, gewürztraminer, lemberger, zweigelt and pinot noir). The first crush in 2009 was done in a newly completed winery, designed by architect Robert Mackenzie. The winery is in one of the Okanagan’s most historic vineyard areas. In the 1930s, Hungarian-born Eugene and Virgil Rittich pioneered the Okanagan’s first serious trials with vinifera grapes not far from Ancient Hill. The orchardists who previously owned the Ancient Hill property planted vines in 1944 after being encouraged by the Rittich brothers. A hard winter five years later killed most of the vines, although 40 unidentified vines remain on the property.