Oliver winery receives highest honour at Canadian Wine Industry Awards
Oliver's Burrowing Owl Estate Winery took home the Canadian Wine Industry Award of Distinction during the 2024 Wine Industry Awards ceremony last night.
Wine growers from across the country gathered in Penticton for the 2024 Wine Industry Awards Tuesday, March 12, to recognize workers and vineyards of the industry, according to a wine growers release.
The Wyse family from the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery from Oliver was recognized with the Canadian Wine Industry Award of Distinction.
"The Wyse family's unwavering focus on premium quality wines, along with their pioneering commitment to the environment, has made an enduring mark on the BC wine industry," Dan Paskowski, Wine Growers Canada's president and CEO, said in the release.
"The dedication of three generations of their family to an innovative, energy efficient winery, a culinary and wine tourism destination and to the conservation of the burrowing owl, their winery namesake, leaves a huge legacy on the wider wine industry in British Columbia and across Canada."
James Wyse, the founder and proprietor of the winery says he is very appreciative of the award and the recognition.
He believes the quality of their wine along with the business' commitment to the environment are the reasons their vineyard and family was recognized with the award.
"The impression we got is that it starts with making good wine and that was our goal from the beginning," he says."We've also had a very strong direction toward the burrowing owl problem; the birds themselves are in deep trouble and we've done as much as we can to try and help the birds, it's a conservation thing. We've also been very positive about trying to do the right environmental thing as well: we've made some major changes in the vineyard, we've installed quite a few solar panels, we've got geothermal heating in our guest house and there's a lot of other environmental investments made as well."
The award was received by the whole family and that is something Wyse is grateful about as he says his whole family made the winery what it is today.
"It was a family award and that's absolutely the way it should have been," he says. "You have to realize I'm 85 and my wife is 84 and yes we started the place 30 years ago, but it's our children - who aren't really kids, they're all in their fifties now - but they've been doing all of the heavy-lifting now for the last ten years at least. We help out where we can and sign the checks, but they've been making the major decision: that's my daughter Kerri who's vice-president, Chris who's the president and our son Stephen who first took over and is now doing his own thing in the industry."
The award serves to recognize outstanding leadership, commitment and passion for the development and growth of the Canadian wine industry and is seen as the highest form of peer recognition in the industry.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Gabrielle Adams or call (438) 830-1211 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.
