Kathy Malone is the long-time winemaker for Hillside Winery in Penticton, British Columbia. Raised in Vermont, Kathy has called the Okanagan home for over 30 years. After many years of winemaking at Mission Hill Family Estate, she joined Hillside in 2008 to focus on the Naramata Bench. As a past chair of the BC Wine Grape Council’s R&D Committee, she has been a key contributor to the growth of the BC wine industry, advocating for research that has garnered international recognition for the region.
At Hillside, Kathy’s work centers on expressing the terroir of the Naramata Bench as its vineyards mature. She is committed to showcasing the region’s evolving character, giving wine drinkers a direct connection to its ongoing discovery and development.
Media Inquiries: kathy@hillsidewinery.ca | https://www.hillsidewinery.ca/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
Hillside Winery was founded by Vera Klokocka a Czechoslovakian refugee who, with her husband Bohumir, purchased an apricot vineyard on the Naramata Bench and replanted to wine grapes in 1983. After a few vintages on the bench, Vera recognized that she her neighbours were making excellent wine from their fruit, but could only sell to a larger winery under the licensing structure at the time. Vera was pivotal in lobbying the provincial government to create a “farmgate” license, allowing growers to make and sell wine from the cellar door. Hillside was granted the 2nd such license in 1989. We are so proud of this legacy that shaped the BC wine industry.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Winemaking is about the constraints. Being able to take the resources which are presented to you and put together a portfolio of sound, appropriately priced wines that are both true to the terroir and consumer friendly is the whole point of winemaking. Making optimum use of every block of each variety is challenging but necessary. Doing this over multiple vintages allows you to build the reputations of vineyards and winery as well as your own. Winemaking is about strategizing and troubleshooting, as the best-laid plans are necessary to prepare the tools for a vintage, and the ability to pivot when, say, half your pinot crop is destroyed by disease days before harvest, is critical.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Our Gamay, rumored to be one of the oldest blocks of Gamay vines in Canada, was planted by our founder, Vera Klokocka and her husband Bohumir, political refugees from Czechoslovakia.
The vines are self-rooted and sustained some damage (<10%) in the now legendary freeze of January 2024 when temperatures across BC plunged to -25 to -30 degrees Celsius, killing 99% of the fruiting buds and many vines in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. Thanks to Vera’s decision to use self-rooted vines, we have been able re-trunk the damaged vines and expect close to full recovery this vintage.
I recently asked Vera why she planted Gamay back in 1983. She said she always loved Beaujolais Nouveau, which was so popular back then, and she wanted something early ripening. Now that the vines are mature, we make a more serious “cru”-style Gamay, with longer skin contact and barrel and bottle aging. These days it is often the last red variety picked, to achieve optimum tannin ripeness. The 2021 vintage just won a Double Gold/Best of Variety in this year’s All Canadian Wine Championships. Read the wine review here.
Bonus Question: What are your wholehearted convictions related to the wine business?
In a smaller wine region such as ours, the only strategy for the industry to survive and flourish is to create premium wines which showcase the unique terroir or terroirs of the region.