SUMMERHILL’S CIPES LEADS MARCH TO ORGANIC GROWING
Winemaker has vision of transforming farming in Okanagan Valley by 2020
Much was made of Stephen Cipes arrival in the Okanagan Valley 30 years ago when the New York City businessman left Wall Street for Kelowna.
Cipes believed he had found paradise: a place to raise his kids and a place to make sparkling wines. He’s done that and more, including becoming a grandfather six times over. But it hasn’t been a smooth ride.
Cipes tells the story of when he bought Summerhill Pyramid Winery: “I had four little boys and the first thing they had me do was put on gas mask, suit up, go on my tractor. I said ‘whoa what are we shooting here’ and it turned out to be Gromoxone (a long lasting herbicide). I asked, ‘is this going down to the lake, the lake where we get our water?’ I immediately stopped all the chemicals, saying we can’t do it.”
Thus the long march to organic grape growing was underway, much to the skepticism of most valley residents. In fact, Cipes still laments the reluctance of some of his fellow growers to change their ways today.
Unfortunately, B.C. has close to 300 wineries and less than three per cent are organic. It’s pitiful, and I think a lot of shoulders should be shook and a lot of eyes should be opened.
“This valley is so far north we have the least amount of pests — it’s the easiest to go organic. So I thought ‘wow, what a great combination’, we could be a diamond on this emerald planet. We could be a model for the world of how to do major farming without chemicals. At Summerhill we are more than sustainable, we are actually permaculture which is more than nature.”
Cipes is on a mission guided by his personal life philosophy: “Be whole unto yourself at all times and allow your grand self to come through in your regular self.”
While his sons are taking over the day-to-day operations at the winery, Cipes has big plans for the Okanagan Valley — taking the entire valley organic by 2020, with his 2020 Vision Declaration.
The call to action asks everyone to share the 2020 vision with friends and family. To grow, buy, and consume local organic products. To ask where your food and beverages come from and how they’re grown. To consider transitioning lawns to gardens, xeriscape properties (landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance), and to urge all commercial chemical farm owners to consider the future for all our children, and their children’s sake.
Summerhill is committed to producing 100 per cent organic wine, and has had Demeter Biodynamic certification for its Kelowna vineyard since 2012. Certified organic status was achieved in the cellar in 2007, allowing the winery to display the Canadian certified organic logo on its bottles.
There’s much to do at the winery, from dining at The Sunset Bistro (where, obviously, all the ingredients are organic) to taking self-guided tours to the pyramid, biodynamic vineyards and Canada’s only Exhibit of First Contact — the Mallam house and the Makwala Kekuli.
Cipes is extremely proud of the winery’s relationship with the First Nations. “To be able to build a true replica of the sacred building, the Kekuli, and to have the sacred fire in it. The fire represents a tradition that they have had for thousands of years which is that the ancestors who they call the grandmothers and grandfathers are living through the sacred fire and when you sit around the fire and drum, and dance and be respectful they come through and they can talk to you.”
This tradition is now graciously shared by the Westbank First Nation.
Summerhill Winery is well on its way to peace and harmony, although there was a time when Cipes’ thinking was way off the grid. Today he is at the centre of the map to save the planet with kindness and respect for the environment. For that he, his family, and the winery team deserve all our respect.