3303 Boucherie Road
Westbank, BC
Grape growers since 1960, the Stewart family claims to have imported the first pinot noir vines in 1975 for a commercial vineyard in Canada. Their pinot passion remains unabated. Quails’ Gate, which started as a farm winery, now considers itself Canada’s largest producer of premium pinot noir, with about 12,000 cases a year.
The winery grows at least seven clones of pinot noir in its estate vineyard. Vancouver-born winemaker Grant Stanley is an equally passionate pinot fan. He spent close to a decade making pinot noir in New Zealand before joining Quails’ Gate in 2003. The winery underlined its pinot noir focus in 2009 when, for the first time, it released some of the 2007 Family Reserve Pinot Noir in magnums, the first use of large format bottles here.
In addition to pinot noir, Quails’ Gate offers a portfolio of other whites and reds, including two remarkable foch wines from old vines. The top-tier Quails’ Gate wines are released as Stewart Family Reserve wines. In 2010, the winery will release 250 cases of a 2008 single-vineyard dijon clones Pinot Noir.