hen Jim Wyse
launched Bur-
rowing Owl
Vineyards, he
had no experi-
ence in wine
making but
had found
some cheap
vineyard land
south of Oliver.
Following the
1988 free trade
agreement with the U.S., Can-
ada paid vineyard owners to
pull out their grapes, expect-
ing them to replant with
more commercially competi-
tive varities. Most took the
money and abandoned the
properties, which sold for as
little as $2,000 an acre. In
1993, Wyse paid double that
for 100 acres, followed by 120
acres a year later.
"I'm a business person,
and this was a business,"
he says. "We didn't treat it
as a romance. Even though
my wife and I have always
enjoyed wine and have
travelled in wine countries in
Europe and so on, this had
to work ¡nancially." With a
background in engineering
and development, "I could
add, subtract and I do lovely
spreadsheets. I was very com-
fortable with the numbers
that I was getting from my
two vineyard managers and
what it was going to cost us to
plant and acquire the French
varieties that we wanted."
Initially just selling grapes
to wineries, by 1998 Wyse
decided to open a winery, not
originally part of the plan.
"We knew it was very capital
intensive," says Wyse, "so
the biggest risk was probably
that one, because we knew
exactly what we would get
paid for growing Chardonnay
and Cabernet and Merlot and
so on, but we didn't know
that we'd be able to produce
a good wine. And better still,
would we be able to sell it
for a price that would return
our investment?" Burrowing
Owl now produces 50,000
cases of wine a year and
won a 96-point double gold
medal for its 2012 Merlot
in the 2015 San Francisco
International Wine Competi-
tion and Canada's only gold
at the 2015 Syrah du Monde.
There is now a restaurant
and a 10-bedroom guest-
house, rated 10th on Condé
Nast Traveler's Best Hotels in
Canada: Reader's Choice
Awards 2014.
The vineyard's
name was inspired by
a sign about reintro-
ducing burrowing
owls to the region.
"We did not know
what a burrowing
owl looked like,"
says Wyse. "We just
named the property
so it would be a little
more fun than having
a numbered com-
pany." Now Burrow-
ing Owl is committed
to preserving the natural
environment, and the Wyses
are active in the Burrowing
Owl Conservation Society
of BC. "When we had the
successful winery running,
we were quite happy to give
something back to the birds
who have given us a name,"
says Wyse. —Felicity Stone
E O Y
H o s p i t a l i t y + T o u r i s m
W I N N E R
J A M E S W Y S E
[ F OUNDER, BURROWING OWL VINEYARDS LTD. ]
"Jim's vision to create
internationally acclaimed
European-style wine is
appreciated, but even
more so with his com-
mitment to ensuring the
unique ecosystem
remains well and alive
(to do no harm) through
pest control systems,
bat nurseries, to name a
few examples"
40 BCBusiness OCTOBER 2015
W
PAUL EBy (LEFT)
winner
2015
T H E J U D G E S S A Y
