Someone once observed that Tilman Hainle’s wines are not for everyone. Good thing, too, since there’s not nearly enough of them for even the fanatic few. How do you get to be one of the select, then? By following this maverick’s travels, ruminations, experiments and experiences, and periodic communiqués; in short, by being in the right place at the right time, either at his Peachland winery or a public wine event. And while Hainle’s wines are only shown at a very few of those, there are some, including one just a week from now. Read on”¦

Hainle’s reserved parking spot in the pantheon of the Canadian wine scene—and the burgeoning B.C. industry, a goodly part of which he himself helped to burgeon—is certainly secure. He made this country’s first commercially released icewine, with his pioneering father, Walter Hainle. That was the first big building block for the icewine component of the industry, within which we—Canada—have become the world’s preeminent producer, in terms of both quantity and quality.

In quixotic tandem, Hainle also produces some of the most intense, austere, í¼ber-dry table wines—particularly whites—that Canadian palates have ever puckered to. He does not compromise his vision or style of winemaking. There’s no word in the Hainle lexicon for compromise; the family motto is surely the Alt Deutsch for “my way or the highway”. And the Hainle highway still runs directly from super-sweet to ultra-dry with no place to stop between those poles. And food is always a requirement when tasting the wines.

The highway does, however, always return to the tonic. After departing the family property, Hainle travelled the world, to work and study in Australia and South Africa, to Germany once more—here he did his initial winemaking studies at one of the world’s four most prestigious wine schools. Then he returned to Canada to do it all over again—making major waves in the wine world—at the original family vineyard site, high above the lake just outside Peachland.

This is where he’s making new wines the old way. Working Horse Winery isn’t merely a name; it’s a concept, a vision. It is quite likely the greenest winery anywhere. Along with partner Sara Norman, Hainle has set in operation a unique, fully organic winery.

Driving it are, quite literally, a couple of Suffolk draft mares. (They’re a heritage breed, on the endangered species list.) Hainle and Norman plan to preserve the breed while having the horses work the land, besides providing natural fertilizer for the vines and extensive heirloom garden plots. Also in the works is a passive solar energy capture system, grey-water capture and reuse methods, and other innovations. There are also plans for an icewine historical interpretive centre on the site, and just completed this past summer is a B&B with wonderful lake and vineyard vistas and the promise of superb cooking.

It gets greener still when it comes to packaging. There are etched-glass, hand-labelled bottles with glass stoppers instead of corks. There is a refund scheme to encourage bottle returns—and none of your dime-for-the-blue-box business, either. Hainle will hand you a $10 bill for every empty returned; you apply it to the purchase of the next bottle, and suddenly there’s quite an affordability factor in play. Labels are hand-signed, numbered, tied on with twine, and made from easily removed hemp and recycled rag. It’s all unique, certainly in Canada, and perhaps the world.

The home vineyard is five acres planted with pinot noir, pinot meunier, and chardonnay (there’s the recipe for a Champagne-style sparkler right there), as well as a great many rare heritage varieties. (They go into the Rare Breed White blend.) Planned peak production is 3,000 cases—a long way from the initial Working Horse vintage of seven cases of Merlot and a whopping 13 cases each of Pinot Noir and Cabernet, plus a few dozen boxes of the Rare Breed.