Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery

Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery was BC’s 8th estate winery, founded in 1972 and the birthplace of North American Icewine in 1978. The Hainle legacy is built on Walter Hainle’s winemaking expertise and his stroke of genius that resulted in the first production of Icewine in North America. In an attempt to salvage grapes from an early frost that threatened to obliterate an entire year of production, Walter Hainle produced the first 40 litres of Icewine.

Hainle recalled his own Germanic tradition of turning frozen grapes into delicious dessert wines and proceeded to carefully collect the frozen grapes that yielded the first 156 bottles of commercial wine in North America. Today, it is estimated that a bottle of 1978 Hainle Icewine is worth as much as 1. 5 million pounds at the London wine auction.

In 2017, Bella Huang purchased Hainle Winery. With 30 years of successful business experience, Bella has a passion for nature and chose Hainle for its long-standing roots in the Organic sector. Good food and good produce are keys to Bella’s life.

She oversaw the a renovation of the vineyards in November 2019, and of the winery in March 2020. The results shine through. Visitors will learn about local wine and the interesting history of the Hainle Winery.

They have now brought in the highly esteemed natural winemaker Anthony Buchanan as a consultant, as well as young winemaker Scott Ingram (whose wife Colleen has been instrumental in reviving the vineyards) to look to the future with new wines, labels and ideas!