J.W. Hughes is certainly considered the grandfather of grape growing in British Columbia. This is Hughes standing in his vineyard at harvest time for the fresh grape crop. KPA#8159
The Okanagan Valley is one of many north-south trending valleys between the coast and the B. C. - Alberta border. In the Okanagan and adjacent Similkameen Valleys there are about one third of Canada’s wineries – roughly 130 wineries and more that 7000 acres of grapes cultivated. Like many new world wine regions across the globe, the Okanagan has experienced recent and rapid growth; however, the history of wine making and grape cultivation reveals a heritage and tradition that continue to evolve. Expansion into previously uncultivated land suitable for viticulture and an accelerating conversion of orchard to vineyard has accompanied the rapid growth and spatial expansion of grape production in the Okanagan Valley and into the Similkameen Valley that flanks the region to the south and west. Today, the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys boast over 7,000 acres of land cultivated in vinifera varieties, and the region is home to more than 130 wineries many established since 1990 when the synergy of VQA (Vintner’s Quality Alliance) standards, free trade agreements and a global taste for locally produced goods dramatically changed the Okanagan winescape. Like many other new world wine regions, the developmental milestones in the wine region’s culture history are associated with a much longer history of European colonization, regional economic integration, transportation technologies and widespread culture change.
Calona Wines bottling line for their sparkling wines. Photo contributed.
European settlement began in the Okanagan in 1859 and grew up around a Catholic Oblate Mission in the Kelowna area. Popular history has Father Charles Pandosy planting the first grapes in the area. For the next forty years, the area’s economy turned around forms of ‘extensive agriculture’ – cattle ranching and grain growing – and the open parkland vegetation offered an ideal setting for these farming activities. In practical terms, there was just enough timber to build houses, barns and fences, and the remainder of the land was open and available for rapidly expanding herds of cattle. Equally important, the Okanagan was geographically central to the province’s largest consuming markets – the burgeoning gold mining settlements in the Kootenay, Similkameen, Fraser and Cariboo regions.
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| Trade show circa 1950s and shows something of the Calona Wines product line at the time. KPA#8589 |
A new and intensive regional economy began to emerge around the turn of the 19th century. The tree fruit industry was built largely to meet emerging Canadian and Commonwealth markets and it was also nurtured by access to a new rail line that favoured the shipment of a high-bulk, low value, perishable commodity in a cost effective manner. By the late 1800s with completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a rail spur south to the north end of Okanagan Lake in 1892, the regional economy began to change. Later that same year, the CPR launched the paddle wheeler SS Aberdeen on Okanagan Lake. Between 1904 and 1914 the shift to intensive agriculture picked up pace as tens of thousands of acres of grasslands were subdivided into 5 – 40 acre orchard lots. These were quickly supplied with irrigation water and planted to orchards. In roughly ten years, the area’s landscape turned from brown to green and took on a very new look and feel.
Grape growing was part of the trial-and-error process in the pioneer days, but it was not until nearing the end of the 1920s that commercial scale grape growing began. In the late 1920s, J. W. Hughes planted more than 100 acres of grapes in the Kelowna area and about ten years later added another 75 acres. His market for these grapes was both the fresh fruit market and a tiny and new wine industry that began with Growers Wines in Victoria in the 1920s and with Domestic Wine and By-products Ltd (later Calona Wines) in 1932 in the Okanagan.
Grape growing was part of the trial-and-error process in the pioneer days, but it was not until nearing the end of the 1920s that commercial scale grape growing began. In the late 1920s, J. W. Hughes planted more than 100 acres of grapes in the Kelowna area and about ten years later added another 75 acres. His market for these grapes was both the fresh fruit market and a tiny and new wine industry that began with Growers Wines in Victoria in the 1920s and with Domestic Wine and By-products Ltd (later Calona Wines) in 1932 in the Okanagan.
From the 1930s forward, a succession of provincial governments used many protectionist measures to insulate, support and favour the province’s grape growers and wineries. For its purposes, the government’s increasing control of and support for the production and distribution of alcohol helped fill government coffers while nurturing a new grape and wine industry.
Growers' Wine Company (Victoria, BC) was the first winery to purchase grapes grown by J.W. Hughes. KPA#8727
Soon after Hughes planted his first acreage in the Kelowna area, he was able to secure an agreement that guaranteed him $100 per ton. Despite the security of this production, grape acreage remained low until the 1960s when further government regulation and the subsequent establishment of the Grape Marketing Board in 1970 pushed a requirement that British Columbia wineries use as much as 81% of the grapes grown in the province. The shift to increased grape acreage was also driven somewhat by consumer trends that saw domestic wine sales in British Columbia triple between 1964 and 1974.
The expanding grape growing sector also began to change in other significant ways in the 1960s and 1970s. Following a global trend, Canadian consumer demand for wine was growing in sheer volume and was demanding better quality wines. For the Okanagan Region, this meant a move toward the use of vitis vinifera grape varieties that were more suited to the area’s climate and soils. For the next thirty years, expansion of the industry continued southward towards Oliver and Osoyoos.
Two severe winter freezes (1968) and (1978) wiped out much of the early vinifera varieties cultivated in the valley, including 4,000 vines of chardonnay, gewürztraminer, cabernet sauvignon and merlot that had been imported from the United States in 1974. More successful vinifera experiments began in the period 1977-1985 as improving crop science indicated that over-cropping and inappropriate trellising had made the vinifera varieties more susceptible to winter damage. With this background, grape acreage continued to climb slowly but steadily until the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States in the 1980s saw acreage plummet from more than 3000 acres in 1988 to approximately 1000 acres the following year. At the same time, the provincial government instituted the Premium Wine Policy Industry Strategy to spur investment in its new estate winery and farm winery models. Subsequent expansion in grape acreage has averaged more than 10% per year and currently stands at more than 7000 acres.
Table grapes destined for the fresh market are loaded here at the J.W. Hughes vineyard in the 1930s. KPA#8158
Wineries in British Columbia have enjoyed a long history of government protection – largely taking the form of preferential listing opportunities in the provincially controlled liquor distribution and sales system. As well, mark-ups on wines produced outside the province favoured British Columbia wine sales. Finally, government subsidies through agencies such as DREE (Department of Regional Economic Expansion) supported improved efficiencies in production. By the advent of the FTA in the late 1980s, the industry and the market were both poised to take advantage of the new focus on premium wines. In 1989, the newly legislated British Columbia Wine Institute was positioned to roll out the province’s first appellation program of wine standards under the VQA branding. Supported by government legislation and policy that removed barriers to the production of premium wines based exclusively on locally grown grapes, the number of wineries began to expand significantly. Today there are roughly 179 wineries in British Columbia, most of these located in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys.
If you have photos or stories of British Columbia grape and wine history please contact us:
BC Wine Museum
(250) 868-0441
