The Vineyard

We are a family-owned, 5-acre vineyard in the South Okanagan, B.C., Canada, in a small town called Kaleden. We named our vineyard for the large stand of white Birch trees along the top vineyard block. The unique terroir, with sand and loam as well as glacial deposits, combined with long summer days and cool summer nights, made it an ideal site for our favourite grape— pinot noir.



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Our Wines

You can purchase all of our Birch Block Vineyard wines from Lightning Rock Winery.
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Birch Merch

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About Our Wines

Click to read more on the tasting notes of our wines.

Less is More

In 2016 we planted 100 percent pinot noir vines from Dijon clones (115, 667, 777) on 4 acres of virgin land. We are lucky to be on a site that has never been cultivated; it was originally pastures for llamas and sheep. We don’t use chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers and herbicides and we employ organic and manual farming practices. We like to get our hands dirty.

In our winemaking, we believe strongly in a “less is more” philosophy, employing natural winemaking practices with minimal intervention — a true expression of fruit and terroir. Our first vintage, a refreshing pinot noir rosé called “Été Sans Fin” (Endless Summer) was released in spring of 2019.

Meet the Makers

Hailing from Vancouver, husband and wife Murray and Sarah Bancroft come from culinary and media backgrounds respectively. They have both travelled to France extensively since their early 20s, and took their young daughters to Paris for a sabbatical year in 2016-2017. With a long-time interest in wine, Murray, or “the trained pallet” as we like to call him, has participated in both vendange (harvest) and winemaking in Champagne and Bordeaux, and continues to return every year. While working as an international culinary consultant, he spent evenings and weekends studying viniculture at California’s U.C. Davis. For her part, Sarah enjoys “researching” wine (especially rosé) with friends and family any day of the week.

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