4870 Chute Lake Road
Kelowna, BC
In 2008, Summerhill, which gets 80 percent of its grapes from organic vineyards, became the first winery in British Columbia to achieve organic certification for the winery. This certification is issued by the Pacific Agricultural Certification Society of Vernon, and is recognized in the U.S., as well as in Canada.
This is the culmination of a long-standing ambition of winery owner Stephen Cipes who moved to the Okanagan 20 years ago in search of a cleaner environment. To do his part in keeping it that way, he converted the vineyard to organic production. Launched primarily as a sparkling wine house, Summerhill is B.C.’s largest producer of sparkling wines and icewine.
What also sets Summerhill apart is its gleaming white pyramid. Cipes, who sometimes leads mystical tours of the pyramid, believes that wines improve during pyramid storage.