Retirement isn’t part of Harry McWatters' vocabulary. To mark his 50th vintage making BC wine, the CEO of Encore Vineyards felt it was time he opened a new winery and restaurant in downtown Penticton, called Time Winery.
To run that operation, he selected another Okanagan wine veteran, Graham Pierce, to be Time’s director of winemaking.
Prior to joining McWatters' team, Pierce was the winemaker at the iconic Black Hills Winery in Oliver where he has been for the past seven years. At Black Hills he created a strong lineup of wines including the iconic Nota Bene. Previously he was at Mt. Boucherie Winery, and before that, a chef at Kelowna's Summerhill Winery.
“We have been industry friends with Graham for many years," says Harry McWatters.
“It is great to have him join our team. His pedigree of winemaking and knowledge in handling Okanagan fruits will allow Evolve Cellars, McWatters, and TIME Winery to continue making exceptional BC VQA certified wines that is a reflection of the land where the grapes are grown and the talented people who craft them."
Pierce was also keen to take advantage of this opportunity.
“I’ve worked in the Okanagan for 22 years; I have a strong background in hospitality and winery restaurants. “
He continued, “When I started to talk to Harry and realized I had a chance to utilize a lot of my skills I thought, wow this was really cool and fun ... Especially to work with Harry McWatters, a pioneer in the industry, innovator, always doing something, he always has some new ideas.”
Although being a director of winemaking is a demanding job, the position also has an element of fun.
"The fun challenge will be to oversee and make a range of wines; from fruit-forward, juicy Evolve Cellars wines, to the complex and textured wines of TIME Winery and the McWatters Collection. After crafting still wines for so many years, I am most excited about the chance to create my first small batch sparkling wine” Pierce said with a huge grin.
Pierce summed up our conversation by saying, “The message I want to get across to people is, it’s a new winery but it’s an old established family that’s been making wine forever. It's in the converted Penmar Theatre. We’re right in downtown Penticton so we’re very convenient and the food is amazingly delicious and well priced.”
“So I really encourage people to come down, do a tasting, stay for lunch, or have some appies in the afternoon, come for a drink after dinner. It’s a really cool spot to visit, and we’ll be crushing grapes all fall. So you can come and watch al the action while you’re having some snacks and doing a tour and a tasting.”
If you can’t make it to the winery in Penticton, Graham Pierce’s wines are available here in Richmond at the VQA store at Ironwood’s Save-On Foods as well as other private wine stores. Next week, we review his Time White Meritage, Time Meritage Red, and a McWatters Collection Meritage Red.
