APRIL 2020 JULY/AUGUST 2020 BCBUSINESS 47
RISE AND VINE
Part of a new generation
of B.C. wineries, Phantom
Creek Estates near
Oliver reportedly cost
$100 million to build
O
On a prime lakeside stretch of tony Pritchard Drive in
West Kelowna, thousands of spindly grapevines take root along with the
vision of Plenty of Fish founder Markus Frind: complete with a bakery-café,
a wine-tasting room and a planned boat dock, Frind Estate Winery opens
this summer. Across the water in Lake Country, Albertan Dennis O'Rourke,
founder of Sureway Construction Group, is carving European-style caves
from the rocky landscape, eventually for aging premium Burgundian-style
vintages to complement current bottlings from his namesake winery.
To the south near Oliver, Vancouver-based industrialist Richter Bai is
said to have spent $100 million building Phantom Creek Estates, where top
global consultants like France's Olivier Humbrecht advise on making wine
from some of the choicest parcels in B.C. As with any sector, when players
this big make moves in one direction, it attracts attention—in this case, to
the province's next-generation wine industry.