St. Hubertus joins Anthony von Mandl’s stable

Photo: Sellers Andy (left) and Leo Gebert (credit Suzanne Gebert)

Anthony von Mandl has added to his collection of choice properties in East Kelowna with his recent purchase of St. Hubertus Estate Winery and half of its historic vineyard. He already owns CedarCreek Estate Winery (purchased in 2014), Martin’s Lane Winery (opened in 2017), and Sperling Vineyards (purchased several years ago). His Mission Hill Family Winery also owns the John Simes vineyard almost across Lakeshore Road from St. Hubertus, along with vineyards on Dehart Road. "St. Hubertus has joined Iconic Wineries of British Columbia," confirms Mission Hill spokesman Ian Galbraith. "St. Hubertus is a family-run operation with a rich history of winemaking in the north Okanagan, dating back more than 40 years. We have the utmost admiration for everything the Gebert family has achieved, and we are committed to honouring the legacy of what their family has created in the Okanagan Valley." What all these properties have in common is that this is some of the Okanagan’s best terroir for Riesling and Pinot Noir. The vineyards are also certified organic.

Sperling and St. Hubertus are two of the most historic vineyards in East Kelowna. Both were planted in the late 1920s by J.W. Hughes. Clone 21B Riesling, now widely grown in the Okanagan, was first planted in these vineyards (and at what is now Tantalus Vineyards) in 1978. The St. Hubertus Vineyard was farmed for many years by Frank Schmidt, who had been a foreman for Hughes. The vineyard then was called the Beau Séjour Vineyard, a brand of Growers’ Wines which was buying the fruit. The vineyard was later purchased by Jurgen Mannhardt who emigrated in the mid-1970s from Angola. He died a few months after buying the property when his tractor rolled over on a steep slope. The Gebert Brothers, Leo and Andy, came from Switzerland in the mid-80s, purchased the property and opened the St. Hubertus winery in 1992.

In 2003, the winery found itself in the path of the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire which destroyed 239 homes in Kelowna. Before reaching the city limits, the fire swept through the St. Hubertus vineyard, razed the converted garage housing wine production, and destroyed the heritage house in which Leo and his family had been living. But it bypassed a new warehouse in which all the bottled wine, including the 2002 vintage, was stored. The brothers bounced back with remarkable resilience. They had a temporary wine shop open within a week. A permanent new shop opened at the beginning of October. They introduced two new labels, Glowing Amber and Fireman’s Red, with profits going to a local relief fund. And work had begun to replace both the winery and the home.

In the second edition of my 2004 book, The Wineries of British Columbia, I recounted the story. Both luck and good planning explain why St. Hubertus, a 10,000-case producer, hardly missed a beat. When the winery burned, the only wine lost was 2,000 litres (440 gallons) of port. All other wine from the previous vintage, including the 2002 icewine, was already bottled and stored in the new warehouse a few hundred yards from the winery. The warehouse, a corner of which became the new tasting room, was untouched by the fire. An older storage building nearby was turned into the new winery. And everything had been insured. “Leo is very religious about that,” Andy says of his brother. “Whenever new equipment arrives, it is always fully insured.” You would expect nothing less, since the brothers are Swiss. Leo was born in 1958 at Rapperswil, a picturesque agricultural community in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. He trained as a banker and then worked in the United States with a plastics fabricator. But as a student, he spent his summers in small Swiss vineyards and that fired his desire to be a farmer. “We are brothers, we married sisters, we are neighbours, we are business partners and that’s as close as any family ever should get together,” Andy smiles. “We are very different from each other -- I guess that’s one of the reasons why it works.” Andy, who was born in 1965, came to Canada in 1990 after a few years skippering yachts in the Caribbean. He has been an active winery partner since 1994.

The partnership began to unwind last fall. An online news service reported that Leo had sold his shares in the winery to his brother, Andy, who confirmed it to me at a wine tasting in Vancouver. Leo retained half of the 76-acre property with the intention of continuing to grow grapes. Some of the sustainable and organic certified grapes grown in the almost 100-year-old St. Hubertus Vineyard include Chasselas, a Swiss varietal which is a nod to the Gebert family’s heritage; the old vine Riesling which was planted 45 years ago, Gamay Noir and other assorted varietals.

As is the usual practice, there has been no comment from Von Mandl, or privately-held Mission Hill or Sebastian Farms, his vineyard holding company. “This is the vineyard side of the business, and from this vintage (2021) is 100% certified organic,” British wine writer Jamie Goode wrote three years ago. “This has singlehandedly pushed the overall percentage of organically farmed vineyards in the Okanagan from 4% up to 17%. For those wanting to make high-end Okanagan wines, vineyard ownership is important, because otherwise you end up relying on growers. Such is the demand for fruit in the Okanagan, you can’t really dictate terms when you are looking to buy fruit as the growers can just sell it to someone else if you make too many demands of them. The Sebastian Farms vineyard resource is shared among all these wineries, which is a huge advantage.”

Von Mandl’s collection of Okanagan wineries, now under the banner Iconic Wineries of British Columba, is a group of stellar producers. In addition to CedarCreek, Martin’s Lane and Sperling, they include Road 13 Vineyards (purchased 2018), Liquidity Wines, CheckMate Artisanal Winery, Red Barn Winery at Jagged Rock. In a tasting three years ago, Goode wrote highly of the group. “Stylistically, I’ve been really impressed by the stylistic direction taken by the IWBC group. Each of the wineries has its own personality, but the shared family values are wines that express their place, without reliance on excessive ripeness or make-up such as too much new oak.”

It remains to be seen whether St. Hubertus was purchased for the vineyard or whether it will become another iconic winery. Currently, the St. Hubertus website has been taken down.