31238 123rd St.
Oliver, BC
A marketer who once worked for Jimmy Pattison, Bruce began developing an Okanagan winery earlier this decade with a proposal to create an “Italian” village inspired by the Venetian village of Asolo in which he once vacationed. Fuller contracted other wineries to produce product that he sold as Rustico d’Asolo, until there was a falling out with a partner and the label disappeared.
But with the luck of the Irish, Fuller in 2008 acquired a Golden Mile vineyard with a new, unopened winery. The appeal of this property, however, is its history. The original vineyard was planted by a dapper Hungarian, John Tokias, who previously had worked in a B.C. mine.
The rustic sod-roofed home beside the winery, a former mining bunkhouse, inspires Fuller to retell south Okanagan history in the wine shop and on the website. The vineyard includes gewürztraminer, merlot, zinfandel and an old block of chancellor being converted to cabernet franc.