Hillside Estate Winery

Hillside Estate Winery began in 1984 when Vera and Bohumir Klolocka began replacing their apricot orchard with wine grapes. In 1989 Vera, along with two other small vineyard owners, lobbied the BC government to produce and sell their wine to the public directly from their winery. Their success was proven when Premier Bill Vander Zalm announced the “Farm Gate Winery Policy” which allowed vineyards that were less than five acres to sell their wines at the “farm gate”. Hillside Winery became one of the first Farm Gate Wineries in British Columbia. Until that time, there existed only large commercial and smaller estate winery operations. With the emergence of the Farm Gate winery policy, a whole new dimension was added to the wine industry in British Columbia that included guidelines for the VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance - an alliance between growers and wineries) in the province. The first commercial release of a Hillside wine was the 1989 Auxerrois; receiving not only the VQA Seal but also the VQA Gold Seal, reserved only for a handful of the very best British Columbia wines.