Stacy Hornemann is the winemaker for Blue Grouse in Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She joined the team in May 2024, fresh from her significant tenure at Stonestreet Estate Vineyards in Sonoma County, California, in the U.S.
Stacy got her start in the industry in 2012 at Trefethen Family Vineyards, then in 2013 at Mumm Napa a vintage and lab intern respectively. Her career trajectory blossomed with future roles as Estate Horticulturist at St. Supéry Estate Vineyards and Winery to Enologist and Assistant Winemaker at Materra | Cunat Family Vineyards.
In 2017, Stacy joined the team at Jackson Family Wines, lending winemaking support to Legacy Wines, Matanzas Creek, Windracer, and Capensis, before assuming her long-term position as Facility Winemaker at Stonestreet Estate Vineyards. Her dedication to excellence was evident in her roles in sustainability initiatives, winery renovations, and the introduction of avant-garde winemaking practices.
Media Inquiries: Stacy@bluegrouse.ca | https://bluegrouse.ca/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
The Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island is a wild place to grow wine. The Island’s terrain has been shaped by a mixture of upwelling of seabed, volcanic activity, seismic activity, and impact from glacial evolution. Commercial winegrowing is a relatively recent industry in the Cowichan Valley with fruit and berry wines being produced since the 1920s, but commercial wineries didn’t come about until the 1980’s. Blue Grouse, being the second to receive its commercial license in 1992, has continued to be a prominent producer of wines from this unique and cool growing region. Embracing the cool climate and varieties that deliver vibrant natural acidity from the short and intense growing season, Blue Grouse grows and produces a range of still wines including Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Bacchus, Ortega, Siegerrebe, Gamay Noir, and Pinot Noir as well as both traditional method sparkling and Charme d L’ile – a Charmat method sparkling wine that can only be made from grapes grown on Vancouver Island. Blue Grouse was founded and has been operated by a few incredibly passionate individuals that have kept this pioneering spirit that continues to define the region. Growing wine here is exciting, not many folks are aware that we are growing wine on Vancouver Island. As far as stories go, we are in the early chapters of winegrowing on the Island and in the Cowichan Valley.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Oh, this is fun. If the sky was the limit, I would want to embrace all aspects of farming for soil health and biodiverse resilience. Use of livestock for cover management and fertility, cover crops, hedgerows, and maximizing overall biodiversity. Facilitating a strong ecosystem in the vineyard and to employ unconventional but progressive strategies (knowing that there is a never-ending supply of cash) it would be the ultimate trial and investigation in pushing the limits of how vines can perform under different management methods.
As for the varieties and wine styles: I would want to have my cake a eat it too, of course. Farming in both cooler and slightly warmer climates would allow for both sparkling and light-medium bodied red wines to be produced. As expected, the winery would need to be tricked out with pharmaceutical grade precision temperature control, analytical capability and ergonomical workflow.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
I think people think I’m nuts when I voice my intrigue a for the grape variety Ortega. The variety has interesting parentage (Siegerrebe and Muller Thurgau) and I think has a lot to offer. It is a variety that delivers both in quality and quantity in the Cowichan Valley. It isn’t grown many places and most people (including myself until recently) have never heard of it! Ortega and other varieties like Bacchus and Siegerrebe are crosses of Vitis vinifera. Unlike hybrids, these Germanic crosses were traditionally bred from noble varieties, not crossed with other species of Vitis.
With some precision farming, I think Ortega can be driven in interesting directions as far as styles and profile. Ortega loads sugar early but also drops acid quickly. To nail the pick date, we need harvest when acid is still bright but without being too over the top. The skins can be quite phenolic and therefore gentle handling is required at crush.
Over the years, Blue Grouse has produced varietal Ortega still wines and has also included it in sparkling blends as well. The profile can be citrus, tropical, floral, and confectionary depending on winemaking, vineyard, and site. We are excited to work on driving style in the vineyard with different canopy management strategies to see what we can achieve as far as riper flavours.
As we discussed on the patio, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have already demonstrated their potential for high quality still and sparkling wines in the Cowichan Valley and on Vancouver Island. Our goal now is to find and express the best sites for both still and sparkling wines made from these varieties. These are the varieties we have continued to plant and will produce to a greater extent, but we will include grapes like Ortega that have their place in our portfolio due to their history and performance since planting in the 1980s. Stay tuned, this wine review is coming soon!
Bonus Question: What are your wholehearted convictions related to the wine business?
Wine can be really enjoyable and fun, but I think we have done a really good job making it intimidating. Yes, wine can be complex and whimsical, but ultimately – someone, somewhere must like it or we would have a lot of wine gone undrunk. I think sometimes new wine drinkers are worried about liking the “right” wines or being able to taste or smell something they read on a tasting note. The most important thing when wine tasting or enjoying wine is: Do you like it? If the answer is no, let’s find something you might like. Being able to taste wines and determine if you like it or not is helpful in finding what regions, styles, producers, and varieties meet your taste preference. There are so many wines from so many places, just keep tasting and remember that the most important thing is “do you like it” and don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re doing it wrong.