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Kathy Malone
Kathy Malone

 

Raised in the mountains of Vermont, Kathy has called the Okanagan “home” for more than three decades. Kathy spent 1985–2008 working at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery where she had substantial responsibility for making many of Mission Hill's best-selling wines. In 2008, Kathy made the move to Hillside to share in the Naramata Bench lifestyle.

How good is Kathy? Put it this way: John Simes, Mission Hill's senior winemaker, at the time, hired two winemakers to replace her

What makes the Naramata Bench unique in the Okanagan is its geography. It is a strip of vineyard land, with fairly complex soil, about 25 km long on the east side of Okanagan Lake. The aspect of most of the bench is a gentle slope facing the west, meaning the vineyards benefit from long days of sunlight, with the lake effect moderating summer heat spikes as well as seasonable winter cold. The benefit of the sun is magnified when the rays of late afternoon sun bounce from the lake onto the vines

Kathy's commitment to quality has been awarded numerous times throughout North America. Under her guidance, Hillside is the only BC winery producing Muscat Ottonel, a truly unique and unusual aromatic white wine, which has developed a huge customer following

. Author John Schreiner writes Kathy is highly regarded by her employers as she continues to raise the bar on wine quality. At a recent tasting, I found the new releases from Hillside among the best I have ever tasted at this winery. In the last few years Kathy has been focusing on Estate grown grapes and the Naramata Bench. It is the best place in the Okanagan to grow grapes” ; she claims

 Kathy Malone was one of the people spearheading the drive to make the Naramata Bench a sub-appellation within the Okanagan Valley

Kathy is one of a few winemakers that makes icewine. She wrote a blog called “Why I hate Icewine.” She writes: “Of course I don’t hate Icewine. It is truly nectar of the gods, with its rich aromas, concentrated flavours and unctuous texture.” She goes on to allude to the challenges and frustrations of making wine from grapes that, by regulation, must be picked no warmer than -8◦C. “The lay person would be amazed by how often in a season we approach but don’t meet that temperature, and more amazed how often that happens on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, vineyard manager’s birthday etc.!”

Hillside Estate Winery

Hillside Estate was started in 1984 when Vera and Bohumir Klockockas began replacing fruit trees with vines in the orchard they had purchased in 1979 on Naramata Road, just north of the city of Penticton, BC. The couple had decided the site would be ideal for a vineyard because of the gravelly topsoil on a slope which faced west, catching the direct rays of the sun and reflections off nearby Lake Okanagan. The winery is currently owned by a group of investors.

Winemaker Kathy Malone is focusing, as much as she can on making Hillside wines with grapes grown on the Naramata Bench. “We want to show the Naramata fruit,” she says. “It is the best place in the Okanagan to grow grapes.”

In 1989 Hillside, together with Lang Vineyards and Wild Goose, lobbied the Provincial Government to bring about the Farmgate Winery Policy that was instrumental in changing the B.C. Wine Industry. The new policy allowed small vineyards of five acres or less to not only produce wine but also to sell it directly from their premises

It is our belief that great wines start in the vineyard, and to this end, we use only the best quality fruit available from our twenty acres of grapes densely planted on hillside terraces surrounding the winery. We also have partnerships with select vineyards along the Naramata Bench.

It has been our commitment since our inception to produce hand-crafted, naturally fruit-forward, well-balanced wines that represent the true character of the grapes. Our uniquely designed winery allows us to ferment and age the wine in many small batches to maintain the varietal character and integrity of each grape type and vineyard.

Hillside Estate Winery Reserve Pinot Gris 2017 awarded The Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines

2020   Rosé  awarded Double Gold Blanc de Noir Style at the 2021 All Canadian

Kathy Malone winemaker Hillside

 

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