Hester Creek's Curt Garland: in memoriam

Photo: Curt Garland

The current releases from Hester Creek Estate Winery include one of its flagship Bordeaux blends, a wine called Garland named for Curt Garland, the Prince George businessman who had owned the winery since 2004. Curt Garland, who died November 21 at the age of 88, bought Hester Creek Estate Winery out of bankruptcy in 2004, to see it grow to one of the Okanagan’s best wineries.

An elegant red wine bearing his name is a tribute to his achievement. The first vintage of Garland was 2015 and the wine was released in 2018 to mark the winery’s 50th anniversary. “He didn’t like the name,” says Rob Summers, the now retired Hester Creek winemaker who made the first four or five vintages of Garland. “Curt was very humble … he did not want the name. We had to sell it to him. I said: ‘This is your legacy. It is the best wine I have ever made, the highest style.’ He did not need to be in the limelight. He was a quiet man who liked to be behind the scenes. He would show up at the winery in a nice pair of jeans and an Eddie Bauer shirt.”

The many who admire the profound change at Hester Creek since Curt took it over will want to toast his memory with a bottle of Garland. “Our day-to-day operations will continue as usual,” Hester Creek president Mark Sheridan said in a statement. “A number of years ago, Curt put in place a succession plan for his businesses. Because of his planning and the dedicated team we have today … we will continue to grow Curt’s legacy.”

Curt’s interest in Okanagan wines began in 1998 after he built a new home in Prince George which included his first wine cellar. Already familiar with California and Italian wines, he decided it was time to learn about British Columbia wines. He began looking for vineyard land in the Okanagan. A self-made man, Curt started logging at 17 and trucking a few years later. He once owned a sawmill and a plywood plant; when he sold that in 1988, he invested in a tree farm in Uruguay and ran that until 2007. A trucking company he started in 1979 grew into one of British Columbia’s largest operators, delivering specialized services for forestry and mining companies.

“It was 2004 that I thought I should purchase three or four acres of land and have a viticulturist grow some grapes for me and have someone make some wine,” Curt told me in a 2013 interview at Hester Creek. “Every piece of property I looked at had an expensive house sitting on it. As I had just completed my residence in Prince George, I was not interested in buying another one. I was really just looking for land and there wasn’t any land I could find at that time, on that particular trip, that was interesting.” However, he came across an article in a Penticton newspaper about the pending sale of Hester Creek by a receiver. “So I phoned the receiver and he did not return the call on day one or day two, day three, day four,” Curt said. “He never returned the call.” The probable reason was that the receiver likely had not heard of Curt Garland while he already had in hand four solid offers, including $5,155,000 from Quails’ Gate Estate Winery.

Curt was not about to take no for an answer. At the last moment, he found a way to get a higher bid before the court. He offered $5.2 million including funds to pay off the unsecured creditors who are often left in the cold in bankruptcies. “We went in with basically the same offer, only we agreed to pay all the unsecured creditors,” Curt told me in a 2008 interview. “I felt I didn’t want to operate in Oliver and have a lot of small businesses upset before we even opened our doors. That’s how we usually operate.” “Being the man that he was, Curt ensured that 100% of the bad debt was paid to all people owed money,” Mark Sheridan said.

With plenty of business experience, but none in wine, Curt took over a winery launched in 1968 by an Italian immigrant named Joe Busnardo. He sold it in 1996 to a London-based investment group called Boltons Capital Corp. The local management in the Okanagan ran it into bankruptcy. “I had no idea what I was getting into,” Curt admitted to me. But he tapped expertise, including John and Lynn Bremmer, veteran Okanagan winemakers and winery managers. They had been looking after Hester Creek for the bank and then the receiver. “After I got possession of the winery, they were most helpful in assisting me looking for a winemaker.” They helped him recruit Rob Summers, a seasoned winemaker from Ontario. “I liked Curt right away,” Rob recounted in a recent interview. “I felt he was an honest man. We moved out here pretty much on a handshake. My wife was not overly thrilled about that. I said to her that I trust him. He’s a man of his word ... and he was, the whole time I worked for him.”

Rob like the Hester Creek vineyard site and, during an initial walk among the vines, assured Curt he could make the best wines in the valley from there. Curt believed him and, after hiring him, allowed him to design a state-of-the-art $5 million winery, which opened in 2008, to replace the decrepit winery then serving Hester Creek. There already was a conceptual design for a new winery when Rob arrived. “I was in the office one day with the blueprints across my desk,” Rob remembers. “Curt came in to chat. I said I would like to start over. He said ‘Okay, let’s start over.’ And I came up with the concept to dig the winery into the side of the hill.”

It was one of many occasions when Curt supported his winemaker with quick, decisive moves. “Drip irrigation was coming in and there was some money available through a farm assistance program,” Rob recalls. “Curt and I were in the vineyard and I was telling him about drip irrigation. And he said, ‘Let’s do it.’ I figured we could spread it over two years. He paused and looked at me and said, ‘You just told me it is the way to go. So let’s do it.’” All 68 acres of vineyard was converted that year to drip irrigation.

Curt also surrounded Rob with a capable team of managers including Mark Sheridan, an Australian viticulturist lured from the much larger Vincor. Curt’s management style was drawn from the work of an American management consultant named Edward Deming whose ideas had had a major impact on postwar Japan. “People are everything,” Curt told me in the 2013 interview. “We manage with the Deming philosophy. I don’t know if you are familiar with Dr. Edward Deming. During the war he had developed a management philosophy that he was trying to sell to GM and Ford and Chrysler and they were not interested. General MacArthur sent him to Japan and associated him with Toyota. That says it all – they are the number one car manufacturer in the world.” And Hester Creek went on to become one of the Okanagan’s best producers, getting the distinction in 2023 to be named “Winery of the Year – British Columbia” by Great Northwest Wine Magazine. It was a fitting cap to Curt Garland’s impact on the wine industry.

Here is a note on the current Garland wine: Hester Creek Garland 2022 ($64.99). The blend is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec. The wine was aged 24 months in French oak. A hint of oak comes through on the bold palate as cedar, mingled with cloves and dark fruit. The palate delivers rich flavours of plum, dark cherry and cassis. The long, ripe tannins mark this as a wine with good aging potential. 95.