General Manager Brandon James of Summerhill Pyramid Winery, which was founded in 1986 in Kelowna
By Mark MacDonald
KELOWNA – Summerhill Pyramid Winery has something new to toast: and will start doing that when they unveil their latest label and first export product, Nature’s Table.
Proprietor Stephen Cipes, who founded Summerhill in 1986 on Chute Lake Road, says “We are doing high end wine exports for the first time. We’ve been so spoiled with our visitors over the years that we’ve never exported.
“We have entered a new partnership with the Unconventional Hospitality Group (UHG), which has a number of national restaurants, Toronto, Alberta and all over Canada, and they did over $40 million in business in 2023,” he explains. “They’re very professional and they’re bringing our all-organic food and beverage services under the new, beautiful name, Nature’s Table.”
Summerhill is launching the brand Saturday, June 22 with an event for families and individuals.
“We’re changing our focus to catering to our local customers with extremely good food and wine, and tastings in quietness and privacy. It’s a whole new way of thinking,” Cipes adds. “The partnership with UHG is something that Brandon James pioneered for us, and we’ve just promoted him to General Manager. He brought them in, they’re good friends of his, and he’s going to make Summerhill a favorite place for all the locals.”
It’s the latest good news for Summerhill, which has been named the Most Visited Winery in Canada, along with being voted the number one winery and wedding venue by the Kelowna Capital News, as well as having the number one chef, in Erik Fassbind.
Summerhill produces around 30,000 cases of wine each year, including their high-end sparkling, and red and white ice wines. They have as many as 170 employees in prime season and 70 in off-season, as they add 100 staff for catering events.
“We want to double our catering services,” says Cipes. “Weddings here are spectacular, and UHG specializes in weddings.
A number of years ago, Summerhill went full organic, re-planting the entire vineyard with grapes from Europe.
“We used to grow table and hybrid grapes, but now we have the top clones from the Champagne region of France, and we make sparkling wine from those,” he says, adding Summerhill has Demeter International certification, one of the few vineyards in North America that does.. “These grapes have received gold medals since they were introduced in 1992. It’s the most well-known sparkling wine, probably the fastest, best seller in Canada.
Fassbind is also the Executive Chef for the other restaurants in the UHG, including Salt & Brick in Kelowna.
“He’s a wonderful chef, and he’s really dedicated and talented,” Cipes states. “The other day we had some of the wealthiest people in the world here from Hong Kong, and they raved about the food. They said this was the best food they’ve had in Canada.”
Their signature dishes are vegan calamari and flat breads.
“They are made by our pastry chef and they have a number of extraordinary toppings,” he says. “One of them is like a three-fondue cheese, and they put lemon on it. Who would have thunk that? The other has no cheese at all, which makes it vegan, and it has mushrooms and onions on the flatbread.”
The push towards attracting more local dineries to the winery is strategic, and Cipes is confident it is the right move at the right time.
“The whole industry is in crisis. We had our crops completely taken by nature and won’t get any crop this year, and we appreciate the support from the community very much,” he notes. “Any time they can patronize us through the restaurant or a wedding, we need their love and support that we’ve enjoyed for over 35 years here now, more than ever.”