Mission Hill Family Estate Receives Minister's Award of Excellence

NEWS RELEASE  
Dec. 20, 2007
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands

KELOWNA - Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell presented Mission Hill Family Estate Winery with a Minister's Award of Excellence today.

"Mission Hill Family Estate winery exemplifies the quality, innovation and excellence that the B.C. wine industry is becoming known for worldwide," said Bell. "Their commitment to providing local B.C. products has helped educate consumers about the abundance of agri-food products available right in the Okanagan Valley."

Mission Hill is a major private vineyard owner in the region, with 20 distinct estates. The winery was named by Architectural Record magazine as one of the world's four new outstanding wineries in the world. The winery was also recently awarded Canadian Winery of the Year for the second time from Wine Access, the highly acclaimed Canadian food and wine magazine.

"Mission Hill Family Estate is honoured to be a recipient of the Minister's Award of Excellence," said Dan Zepponi, president, Mission Hill Family Estate. "My directive as president is to preserve the integrity that Mission Hill has created as a Canadian business in the very competitive international wine arena. We take our leadership role seriously and remain committed to being a sustainable business that respects its surroundings and builds supportive community relationships."

There are 143 wineries in British Columbia, spread over five regions - the Okanagan, Similkameen, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands. In 2006, more than 12 million litres of wine were produced in B.C., an increase of over 3.5 million litres from 2005. B.C. ice wines have also seen increasing popularity, with 500 tonnes harvested in 2006.

"This holiday season, British Columbians have the opportunity to sample some of our finest farm fresh products, including wines, turkeys and Christmas trees," said Bell.  "Buying local not only tastes good, but it also supports the Province's efforts to cut greenhouse gases by reducing the distance food travels from the farm to your fork."

Visit the ministry's new Farm Fresh B.C. Products page at http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/farmdirect/index.html to find farms located nearest you.