Photo by Ronda Payne
Melissa Giesbrecht
Melissa Giesbrecht owner of Whispering Horse Winery
Melissa Giesbrecht grew up riding horses at J-Bar Ranch, which her grandfather John Giesbrecht built with his wife Bea after buying the Yarrow (Chilliwack) property in the 60s. In time, Melissa’s parents, Barry and Shirley Giesbrecht, built their home on a property connected to the north edge of the J-Bar land and Melissa spent her youth roaming the combined 21 acres and lands nearby. She attended Yarrow Elementary School and dreamed of one day leaving the small town, but still enjoyed the time she spent riding with her grandfather.
“He rode until he was 86 years old,” Melissa says. “He would take the horses and go for a trail ride on the weekend.”
But the ranch started to slow down as John (now 94) advanced in age. The family wanted to keep the land, but no one (including Melissa’s two siblings) wanted to take on a horse ranch.
“The timing was funny because I’d just met my husband,” she explains. “He’s very passionate about wine.”
Laurent Fadanni had taken sommelier courses but realized he was more interested in the craft of making wine. He and Melissa considered moving to Tuscany, where Laurent’s family lived, and he took an apprenticeship in winemaking for two months, but the couple realized how challenging it would be to start from scratch in a new country. They wondered if J-Bar could evolve into a winery.
“We approached my parents with the idea, thinking they were going to laugh at us,” Melissa says.
They didn’t laugh. Instead the two couples created a partnership, bought the land and nodded to John’s decades of work by adopting the name Whispering Horse Winery.
“We just thought it would be a perfect balance,” Melissa says of the partnership.
It was a rather interesting leap into winemaking considering that Barry and Shirley didn’t drink much wine prior to Laurent coming into their lives.
“We started doing wine tasting dinners at my parents’,” explains Melissa. These informal events with her parents’ friends included blind tastings, food and wine pairings, even a PowerPoint presentation Laurent created.
Through research and a 2.5 acre test plot planted in 2012, the family was delighted to learn what they could create. The indoor riding ring got a concrete floor and a set of inner walls to create the winery within the barn which still has stables (empty of course) at the front.
“We never expected to get the [brix, pH and tannin] numbers we did,” Melissa notes. “We planted varieties a lot of people have never heard of. We wanted to plant what grows well here.”
Whispering Horse Winery
The idea was to create wine flavoured by the grapes and terroir, not from manipulating flavours during the winemaking process. It worked and the 2.5 acre test plot grew to about 6.5 planted acres on the Whispering Horse site and another local site with plans for expansion. Whispering Horse is now the only operational winery in the Chilliwack area Melissa is aware of.
The varieties currently planted include the cold hardy and disease resistant Canadian L’Acadie Blanc, Pinot Gris, Epicure, Seyval Blanc, Dornfelder, La Crescent and a bit of Pinot Noir.
The site is small and relatively immature, with visits by appointment only and a tasting room to be built between red maples, overlooking the vines, scheduled for 2021. It’s understandable that progress can’t be instant because Laurent, Melissa and Barry all still work traditional jobs and manage the winery in their spare time.
“Baby steps,” says Melissa. “Last summer we were so burnt out. My dad’s dream is to just be out on the tractor looking after the fields and the vines.”
L’Acadie and Pinot Gris Rosé 2017, both released in 2018, were the first vintages sold at a commercial scale (there was a very limited release of L’Acadie in 2017). The Pinot Gris was left on the skins for about 36 hours before fermentation, giving it a soft rosé colour. Response to the Whispering Horse wines has been overwhelming with the Pinot Gris selling out in just two months and limited amounts of L’Acadie available. This from a handful of markets, a few restaurants and Swirl Wine Store in Yaletown selling the wines. People would even drive out to Yarrow for an appointment to buy wine.
“They sold out,” she says of Swirl. “They were asking for more. It was crazy.”
The family entered the two wines in the 2018 All Canadian Wine Championships and won double gold in the single white hybrids category for L’Acadie and also won double gold in the rosé blanc de noir style for the Pinot Gris Rosé.
“They both won top in their categories. It blew us away,” says Melissa. “Our first competition from a farm family from little Yarrow.”
L’Acadie 2018, Pinot Gris Rosé 2018, Sparkling Pinot Gris 2017 and Sparkling Epicure 2017 are expected to release in 2019 with plans for a brut made from a L’Acadie and Seyval Blanc blend in the future.
“We have a lot of sparkling that’s aging so we’ll be releasing those over the next couple of years,” she says.
Vine and wine consultant Pascal Madevon was brought in 2017 to help consult with the technical side of things when Laurent needed someone to guide certain aspects of the growing and wine-making process.
“They clicked,” Melissa says of Pascal and Laurent working together. “Pascal was super passionate about what we are trying to do here – creating terroir wine. Laurent has great vision, but he’s definitely not a scientist. He’s the artist.”
It’s a different approach to winemaking – perhaps more of a European one – to grow the vines that grow well on the land rather than what’s popular. And like European wines, from preparation of the land to bottling of the wine, it’s a family affair, with the addition of Pascal and Enver Hiliti, who helped John with the ranch and now helps with the winery.
Melissa’s brother, sister and their families help out when needed, keeping Whispering Horse very much in the family.
“The big thing is when we need hands on, they are here,” Melissa explains.
Whispering Horse is VQA and Melissa plans to approach SaveOn Foods about selling the product at the in-store wine shops in the summer.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with the response so far.”
