Where did you get your name?

After driving the beautifully scenic but distinctly rural backroads to our winery, especially the last 300 yards, many people commented on the seemingly isolated location (we’re actually about five minutes from Armstrong) and we started to joke that it wasn’t quite the edge of the earth but you could see it from there. The name stuck and now thousands can claim they’ve been to the Edge of the Earth.

How much wine do you make?

Licencing regulations require us to make at least 500 cases (4500 litres) every year and we’ve made as little  as about 5,000 litres. Our business is growing, however, and in 2021 we made about 12,000 litres.

How big is your vineyard?

We have 2.89 acres of vineyard and we get seven to 10 tons of grapes from the vineyard, assuming wasps, bears, coyotes, hail or some other form of disaster doesn’t befall us. Ten tons of grapes makes about 700 cases of wine.

Do you buy grapes?

Yes. We lease a few small vineyards in Vernon and we get about three tons of grapes from them.  Under licencing regulations, we’re allowed to buy nine tons of grapes from other vineyards. We only buy about three tons, however. We buy magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, varieties that don’t grow well in our northern location, from Chris Hanson and Red Brick Vineyard on the Osoyoos East Bench.

How many types of wine do you make?

Depends on the year but usually two to three reds, a couple of whites, a blush and a couple of dessert wines.

How did you get into winemaking?

We’re both journalists by trade and we fell in love with our piece of property as the place to raise our family. The newspaper business went sour and Russ kept losing jobs so we decided to try and make our living from the land in the best and most fun way possible. We’ll let you know when that happens. In the meantime we still work in the media business and produce Canadian Aviator magazine, Canada’s national magazine for pilots. The two businesses actually fit well together and we have a lot of fun doing both.

Where do you sell your wine?

At the moment, we only sell from the winery and farmers’ markets in Vernon and Armstrong. We see some distinct advantages to that. Selling to beer and wine stores and restaurants is time consuming and costly. We did the math and figured out that we made as much money or more selling directly to the public at or even below the wholesale prices we got from selling to stores. Also, our store and restaurant customers insisted that we keep our wine shop prices as high as theirs so we didn’t undercut them. Eight years ago, we decided to sell only from the winery, with prices as low as $120 a case of 12, and our business has grown exponentially. Many of our customers return year after year for excellent wine at truly affordable prices.