Saxon Estate Winery is located on the Bottleneck Drive in Summerland, but off “the beaten track”. The owners are Jayne and Paul Graydon. Driving up to the winery/ tasting room produces a laidback family farm feeling.
They produce about 2,000 cases of Saxon wines annually.
Before owning the winery, Paul had a very successful software sales career with Xerox Corp, Emtex and Pitney Bowes. Jayne spent several years selling Piper Heidsieck Champagne in Britain.
In 2003 they had emigrated from the UK where they had grown up and established their lives in the Kent area.
Living in Calgary, they set up a wine agency called Great Wines of the World which imported wines from all over the world. This adventure was capital intensive and risky. At this time they were also visiting their son who was living in the Okanagan.
So in 2012, they moved to Summerland to purchase the winery after living in Calgary for 9 years. They called themselves ‘Saxon Winery’ after their English heritage.
Their goal is to deliver hand-picked, organically-grown wines at an affordable price so that wine enthusiasts of all ages can appreciate the wonderment of wine drinking.
Saxon History
Saxon Winery was named after the owner’s Anglo-Saxon heritage from their home country, England and their home county “The Kingdom of Kent”.
England’s Saxon history comes from the 5th century when the Saxons migrated from northern Europe after the demise of the Roman empire.
Jutes, Danes, Angles and Saxons came across the sea by oar-driven sailing ships and settled in southern England where they lived for hundreds of years to become known as Anglo-Saxons.
It was not until the 11th century that the Saxon stronghold came under threat from the Normans when the great battle of 1066 – the battle of Hastings – was fought, in which the Saxon King Harold was slain.
From that time on, the Saxons held out until they formed a truce with the Normans creating a division across what became known as Kent in south-eastern England.
So why Saxon Estate Winery?
The Graydon family come precisely from this location in Kent and created their unique shield containing relevant symbols from their Saxon heritage.
The symbols that the Graydon’s have chosen to represent their Saxon heritage include the Saxon ship which forms an iconic logo on all Saxon winery merchandise and signage. The oar-driven ship was the authentic ocean-going vessel used by the Saxons to settle in England from overseas.
The Vineyard & Winemaking
The 4-acre Saxon Estate Vineyard is in the shadow of Giant Head Mountain. Volcanic soil runs through the Parie Valley where it is located. The vineyard was planted in 2000 and contains Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Nor and Léon Millot (Saxon is the only grower of this grape in the Okanagan). The grapes are grown organically, making it one of the oldest organic vineyards in the Okanagan.
The winery works closely with the Peachland Bat Education and Ecological Society to obtain fertilizer for the organic vineyard. One of the many benefits bats provide is their droppings, otherwise known as guano, which makes for a phenomenal fertilizer! Guano is mined from caves around the world for use as a fertilizer due to its high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous.
Cold stabilization of the wines happens outside and the winery is almost zero carbon footprint.
What is Léon Millot you ask?
Léon Millot which can also be known as “Leon Millot Rouge” is a red varietal of hybrid grapes used for wine. It was created in 1911 in the Oberlin Institute in Colmar Alsace, by the French viticulturist Eugène Kuhlmann. He crossed the hybrid grape Millardet et Grasset with Goldriesling. The variety was named after the winemaker and tree nursery owner Léon Millot.
Léon Millot grows in small amounts in Switzerland, Alsace, Oregon, and Canada. Saxon Estate’s ‘Four Play’ Red Blend contains Léon Millot.
The winemakers
Tom DiBello
Tom DiBello is a graduate of the University of California at Davis in viticulture and oenology. His career began as director of cellar operations for Napa’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.
Tom spent several years working at highly regarded wineries in Australia before returning to the United States to be the winemaker for wineries in California, Arizona and Washington State. In 2000, DiBello was recruited by CedarCreek Estate Winery where he stayed for a decade.
In 2015 Tom started as a consulting winemaker at Saxon. 2018 will be his last Saxon vintage. <1>
Michal Mosny
Michal starts as the consulting winemaker at Saxon Estates with the 2019 Vintage. I have been drinking and appreciating Michal’s wines since 2016 when he was the winemaker at Lunessence. Michal now has his own winery – Winemaker’s CUT at Deadman Lake Vineyard near Oliver.
He left his home country and a small winery in Slovakia in 2012.
The Wines
All the Saxon Estate wines use 100% Organically grown grapes.
Saxon Pinot Grigio 2017 ($25)
A dry Pinot Grigio with an intense clear pale lemon colour. Citrus, apricot and pear aromas. On the palate tropical fruits, ripe red apple, white peach and Bosc pear with a hint of honey. A mouthwatering and lingering long finish. 90 points
Saxon Gewürztraminer 2018 ($25)
A dry wine, pale lemon in colour. Aromas of pineapple, mango, citrus and ginger. Flavours of lemon, pineapple with lots of ginger on the finish. The volcanic soil enhances the lemon and ginger and minimizes the Lychee flavours often found in Gewürztraminer wines. An easy sipping wine that would be great with Asian cuisine like Pad Thai. 89 points
Saxon Four Play White 2020 ($25)
14 % Alcohol. Saxon’s most popular white is a touch sweeter than the first two whites. It is a blend of estate Pinot Grigio plus Sauvignon and Riesling purchased from an Oliver vineyard. A beautiful floral nose with lovely tropical flavours of passionfruit, pineapple and pink grapefruit. An easy-drinking crowd-pleaser. 88 points
Saxon English Rose 2020 ($25)
100% estate Léon Millot Rosé. A gorgeous deep sockeye salmon hue. Aromas of red berries and a hint of tropical fruit. Flavours of strawberry, watermelon and rhubarb with a hint of minerality. 89 points
Saxon Pinot Noir 2018
Aged in French oak barrels and only 67 cases produced. The grapes are cropped at a very low rate of just over one ton/acre. The vines are about 18 years old. Pale ruby in colour with aromas of violets, cherries and toasty oak undertones. Flavours of black cherry, plum, soft oak and earthy notes. Light silky tannins with a long lingering finish. 89 points
Drunken Knight NV ($25)
Nothing like a lovely white port to finish a perfect evening. I was able to try a tank sample while visiting the winery. The warmed port opens with aromas of honey, ginger and toffee. There are rich flavours of apricot, ripe peach and candied peel and fruit. The port has a wonderfully long and warm finish. 90 Points
Please visit the Saxon Estate Winery website to to buy the complete portfolio of great value Okanagan Valley Wines.
Events
Make sure you put this event on your November calendar.
Flamin’ Pumpkin Chunkin’
Sunday, November 3rd (4 pm to 8 pm) for the Flamin’ Pumpkin Chunkin’ event in celebration of Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration of the Gunpowder Plot, an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the British parliament on Nov. 5, 1605. The Adrian Medieval Society will have a built-to-scale Trebuchet for the festivities.
Bring the whole family and watch the spectacle unfold. Each pumpkin is set on fire by the professional Trebuchet crew, then launched into the night sky at our mock castle.
Wine by the glass is available for purchase. Bring your used Halloween pumpkin and a $5 donation per pumpkin, a non-perishable food item for the Summerland Food Bank, and proceeds go to the Adrian Medieval Society and Critteraid.
Challenges
“One of the biggest challenges for winemaking in the Okanagan is the weather – rains, smoke and frost! Farms are always at the mercy of the weather.
We come to winemaking from a business background and Sales and Cashflow are our #1 challenge. 50% of our wine sells from the winery or through our wine club. Save-on-Food stores also sells a good quantity of our wine.
We can do about 80% of the winemaking but need the consultant winemaker to do any final tweaks to the wine before we start bottling. This process was evolved by trial and error from the winemaker doing everything to the current more limited involvement. For the harvest, the winemaker advises on grape picking time, grape quality, treatment of the must and we operate the winepress and do the manual work associated with the crush.
We love what we do but we are now in year eight of a 10-year plan. Our children don’t want to “step into our shoes” and continue to run the business. In the future, we will find a way to sell the business.
We make all our wines from 100% organic grapes but the organic certification process is too paperwork intensive to justify the cost to certify.”
Jayne and Paul Graydon
Conclusion
The Saxon wines are crafted by an experienced and passionate winemaking team. Their dry fruit-forward wines from organically grown grapes are an excellent value.
References
- Famed winemaker takes over at Saxon Estate Winery – Penticton Herald Susan McIver Dec 15, 2015
Note: The original 2019 article was updated to include the current wine vintages.