Darryl Brooker becomes CEO of Okanagan Crush Pad

Photo: Winery executive Darryl Brooker (Credit Lionel Trudel

After an 11-month detour into the cannabis industry, veteran winery executive Darryl Brooker has returned to wine, becoming chief executive of Okanagan Crush Pad Winery in Summerland. Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie, the founders of OCP, describe Darryl’s appointment as “key part of their succession plan”. “Steve and I had come to a critical point: plan to sell, or develop a dynamic succession plan,” Christine said in an announcement. “It's evident that we chose the latter by bringing Darryl into our wine family. We are excited to drive forward doing what we love, and with Darryl’s help build a stronger wine culture in our business and provide key support [that will replace] our reliance on outside consultants.” In a comment for which there will be wide agreement in the British Columbia wine industry, Christine added: “I’m confident that I speak on behalf of the entire BC wine industry in welcoming Darryl back. His talent and vast experience is rare in our field and we all felt the loss when he briefly departed to a different industry.”

Darryl’s previous major role in BC wine was with Mission Hill Family Estates. He joined that winery in July, 2015, progressing from vice-president of winemaking to general manager and then, from January 2018 to April 2021 as president. He left there to spend almost a year as chief executive of Flowr Corp., a Toronto-based company with what is called an “operating campus” in Kelowna. The company produces both recreational and medicinal cannabis products.

OCP was founded in 2010 by Christine, a wine marketing executive, and her husband, Steve, a successful builder. The winery now is a major producer of organically-grown wines from three vineyards, including its Garnet Valley vineyard north of Summerland. The property is 320 acres. Currently, 55 acres has been planted, with a further 10 acres of Chardonnay due to be planted this year. OCP has also taken over the grape contracts with the King family. They operate a 50-acre vineyard just north of Penticton and previously has been long-time suppliers to Andrew Peller’s Sandhill Wines. This contract nails down an assured grape supply to support OCP’s growth. OCP has just begun an expansion of its Summerland winery, which will double the capacity to 20,000 square feet. The winery also has longer term plans for facilities in the Garnet Valley.

Darryl says he was contacted several months ago by Christine to discuss winery executives who might be “a good fit” for OCP, allowing the founders to step back from the business. “I realized that I missed the wine industry more than I thought I would,” Darryl says. Born in Canberra in 1973, Brooker is a graduate of the Wine Executive Program at University of California Davis (2018), having previously earned a graduate diploma in wine business management at the University of Adelaide, Australia (2003) and a Bachelor of Applied Science, Wine Science at Charles Sturt University, Australia (2001). Before that, he served in the Australian Navy as a submariner. He spent four years at New Zealand’s well-regarded Villa Maria Winery before responding to an advertisement for a winemaker for Flat Rock Cellars, then an Ontario winery under development.He arrived in time to make the winery’s debut 1,000 cases in 2003. “I’ve never started a winery from scratch before,” Darryl told me in a 2004 interview.

He moved to Andrew Peller Ltd. in Ontario in 2005 as senior winemaker. He left there in 2010 to join CedarCreek Estate Winery in Kelowna as vice-president of winemaking at operations. After Mission Hill owner Anthony von Mandl bought CedarCreek, Darryl moved to Mission Hill.

The OCP team that Darryl has includes Matt Dumayne, the chief winemaker since 2013, along with director of viticulture Duncan Billing, and Andrew Raines, director of sales for OCP’s sales division. “I always had in the back of my mind that I would work in the wine industry again,” Darryl said in a statement. “I didn't feel my story had finished and I know I still have a lot more to give to BC and Canadian wine. It just had to be a winery that I truly believed in the vision and potential.”