A New Era Begins


 

While the roots of Foxtrot’s vineyards go back to 1993, it was the Allander family who decided, in 2004, to make their own wine from the property, which they named Foxtrot, and to build a winery there. Together, the family created superlative pinot noirs and chardonnays for over a decade. At the end of July 2018, an investor group led by Doug Barzelay and Nathan Todd purchased Foxtrot. Here is Doug’s account of how the group came to purchase this iconic property:

“In 2011, while Nathan and I were on a business trip to Vancouver, a friend and prominent Burgundy collector served several outstanding Burgundies, and one bottle whose identity he concealed. It had an elegance and complexity that reminded me of Chambolle-Musigny, but a distinctive terroir character I couldn’t place. When he revealed that it was a bottle of 2006 Foxtrot Pinot Noir, it changed in an instant my view of the potential of New World pinot. Although other business ventures kept Nathan and me busy in the intervening years, my interest in the Okanagan remained strong—an interest that Nathan, with his roots in the Valley, did not shy from encouraging. In 2017, during an extensive exploratory trip, I became aware that this was one of the few remaining places in the world where ungrafted pinot noir thrived. Shortly afterward, we decided to purchase land in Naramata and found what seemed to be the perfect plot: right next door to Foxtrot! Asking Foxtrot to make the wine for us from our newly christened Sandcastle Vineyard seemed like the obvious choice. We were quite surprised when the owners of Foxtrot told us of their decision to retire and offered to sell us the winery. We recognized that we had been given a remarkable opportunity and contacted a small group of friends who were similarly intrigued.  With this investor group, in August of 2018 we became the proud new owners of Foxtrot.” 

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