Supplied: Aleece Laird

Kamloops could soon be home to another winery, with a major player in the industry looking at setting up shop on a five-acre waterfront property on Kamloops Lake.

A new memorandum of understanding has been signed by Andrew Peller Limited – the group behind the famed Peller Estates label – and the group in charge of the Tranquille on the Lake development to establish a new winery in that part of Kamloops.

Tim McLeod, who is in-charge of the lake side development tells NL News that while no final agreements have been signed, the two groups did not sign a Memorandum of Understanding blindly.

“We actually had John Vielvoye whos a bit of a BC legend in the wine industry, look at the site roughly 18 months ago,” McLeod said. “He’s retired today but he was extremely encouraging, that we should really look into this seriously.”

Once the deal with Peller is solidified, it may still take a number of years to get going.

“It is four years of planting, and then wine making, and then the first two years of data collection and analysis,” McLeod added, nothing this is the biggest agriculture announcement seen at the Tranquille farm in 37 years.

McLeod says much of the data collection over the next two years will focus on micro-climate studies, ahead of an anticipated planting date in spring 2025.

“The biggest killer of grapes is cold weather so we really need to collect data at the field level to determine the varietals,” he said. “Once the varietals are in, it will take another four years before you can actually get down to making wine.”

That timeline would mean the first wine produced out of this proposed Tranquille site is expected some time in 2030, with McLeod saying their hope is to help the wine industry expand in Kamloops.

There are currently four wineries in Kamloops – Harper’s Trail, Privato, Monte Creek, and Sagewood.